On Friday, Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou flew home to China from Canada after reaching an agreement with US prosecutors to end the bank fraud case against her, a point of tension between China and the United States.
Chinese state broadcaster CCTV carried a statement by the Huawei executive, written as her plane flew over the North Pole to avoid US airspace.
Meng, 47, has access to top lawyers, moves around relatively freely in Vancouver, albeit with restrictions, and her comments drew immediate comparison between her life in house arrest versus the two Canadians detained in solitary confinement in China for a similar length of time.
Meng was arrested at Vancouver's airport in December on a US warrant and is fighting extradition on fraud charges that she misled global banks about Huawei's relationship with a company operating in Iran.
Ren Zhengfei, who is Meng's father, also told Canada's CTV that the two had become closer since she was detained in Vancouver on Dec. 1 last year.
Canada arrested Meng in Vancouver on December 1 at the request of the United States, which has brought sweeping charges against her and China's Huawei Technologies Co that portray the company as a threat to U.S. national security. Meng was charged with bank and wire fraud to violate American sanctions against Iran.
"Firstly, I object to what the U.S. has done. This kind of politically motivated act is not acceptable," Ren told the BBC in an interview.