「孟晚舟事件是日益激烈的美中角力的一個轉折點，標誌著兩國關係從相互戒備轉向全麵敵對。」

華爾街日報記者 Drew Hinshaw / Joe Parkinson / Aruna Viswanatha

2021年9月24日，華為首席財務官孟晚舟於團隊步離加拿大溫哥華的寓所。攝：Jimmy Jeong/Bloomberg via Getty Images

本文原刊於《華爾街日報》，端傳媒獲授權轉載。目前，《華爾街日報》中文版全部內容僅向付費會員開放，我們強烈推薦您購買/升級成為“端傳媒尊享會員”，以低於原價 70% 的價格，暢讀端傳媒和《華爾街日報》全部內容。

兩輛囚車駛入天津濱海國際機場航站樓，車上有兩名加拿大人，他們被蒙住眼睛，不辨方向。先前兩人已被囚禁了1019天。

在灑滿月光的停機坪上，一架沒有標誌的美國灣流（Gulfstream）飛機等著載他們回家。不遠處，加拿大駐華大使在鋪著地毯的休息室裏踱來踱去。

15個時區之外，一架國航波音777飛機在溫哥華國際機場待命。加拿大皇家騎警的武裝警官在候機樓裏守候。一位腳踩Manolo Blahnik高跟鞋的中國高管從他們身邊闊步走過，她身穿Carolina Herrera連衣裙，顏色與中國國旗一般鮮紅，她身後跟著一群律師、助手和外交官，他們稱呼她孟女士。她也要回家了。

經過三年的絕密談判，近年來外交史上意義最重大的換囚行動之一正在進行之中。

在天津機場，一名中國官員打電話確認這名女子通過了溫哥華航站樓。隨後他將兩名加拿大囚犯放行。加拿大駐華大使從一個黃色信封中取出二人的護照，並將他們帶到一個出入境檢查口。

一名中國工作人員在他們的護照上蓋了章，並引導他們走到跑道上。

孟晚舟2018年在加拿大被捕時擔任中國華為技術有限公司（Huawei Technologies Co.）首席財務官，那時，這家由她父親創立的通信設備巨頭正準備在全球多數大型經濟體的5G網絡建設競標中大展拳腳。加拿大應美國的要求在不列顛哥倫比亞省溫哥華拘押了孟晚舟，美國對孟晚舟提出銀行欺詐指控。

孟晚舟今年50歲，是知名商界女強人。她被拘押以及美國為引渡她到紐約受審而采取的種種行動，使她在中國搖身成為民族英雄，成為美國對華敵意日益加深的一個符號。

幾天後，作為對孟晚舟被捕事件的反製，兩名加拿大人被中方扣押。50歲的康明凱（Michael Kovrig）當時正處於從加拿大外交部暫時離崗的狀態，在香港為國際危機組織（International Crisis Group）工作。46歲的斯帕弗（Michael Spavor）當時正經營一家幫助學生、運動員和學者訪問朝鮮的機構。在被監禁和受到嚴厲對待期間，這兩個加拿大人被新聞報導和西方領導人同情地稱作“兩個邁克爾”。兩人都否認有任何不當行為。

孟晚舟被捕也成為日益激烈的美中權力角逐的轉折點，推動雙方關係從相互戒備轉向全麵敵對。與上個世紀的美蘇冷戰不同，這次衝突反映的是美國和中國為了控製國際數據流動並最終在全球商業中占據主導地位而進行的爭鬥。

要求釋放被扣押者的談判也讓中國、美國和加拿大之間的關係變得緊張。每個國家都要應對本國的安全關切和國內政治壓力。美國向中國領導人習近平施壓，要求釋放這兩名加拿大人，並將二人被捕當做中國政府無視基於規則的國際秩序的證據。習近平則將孟晚舟被拘視為美國遏製中國發展的又一次卑鄙行動。

習近平針對孟晚舟案下達了100多條指示，他與兩屆美國總統都討論過兩位加拿大人的案件。在孟晚舟獲釋前，習近平拒絕釋放兩位加拿大人。加拿大被夾在中間左右為難。

加拿大駐華大使鮑達民（Dominic Barton）在大使館機密室的白板前花了上百個小時，製定讓這兩名加拿大人獲釋的方案，並去監獄中探望他們。他用語速很快的英語傳遞加密資訊，知道偷聽的警衛很難聽懂。直到最後一刻，加拿大還在擔心消息泄露或美國參議員的一句閑話會破壞這次交換。

本篇報導基於對美國、加拿大和中國現任和前任官員、律師和檢察官、前華為高管、熟悉孟晚舟法律團隊和孟晚舟下屬的人，以及這三個國家的現任和前任外交官的采訪。本報導引用了法庭文件、房地產和公司記錄、機密外交電報、未公布的照片和參與談判的政府官員的筆記。

中國駐紐約總領事館的發言人未回答有關問題。中國外交部發言人曾表示，康明凱和斯帕弗是依據中國法律被拘留和審判的，他們的案件與孟晚舟被捕沒有關係。

（一）第一個倒下的人

孟晚舟於2018年12月1日在溫哥華著陸，她當時計劃在那裏隻待幾個小時。孟晚舟在四個城市擁有住宅，溫哥華是其中之一。

這位華為首席財務官托運了七個行李箱，裏麵裝滿了在四個國家（包括墨西哥）開會的演示材料。墨西哥那時新上任的總統安德烈斯·曼努埃爾·洛佩斯·奧夫拉多爾（Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador）未理會美國的安全擔憂，對華為在該國建設5G網絡持開放態度。

孟晚舟還預定了前往布宜諾斯艾利斯的行程，要在那裏與她的父親、華為億萬富翁創始人任正非會合。任正非之前曾表示，他的三個孩子中沒有一個擁有足夠的遠見來繼承他的事業。孟晚舟代表她父親的華為帝國走遍世界，似乎決心證明他是錯的。

在孟晚舟走進香港國際機場時，有關她行程的消息通過一條安全線路傳到了當時二十國集團（G20）峰會舉辦地布宜諾斯艾利斯的Palacio Duhau酒店。一位白宮律師在一間套房內的隔音帳篷裏接聽了電話。之後，這位律師叫醒了博爾頓（John Bolton），告訴他孟晚舟上路了。

作為時任特朗普（Donald Trump）政府的國家安全顧問，博爾頓十分清楚，抓捕孟晚舟可能會擾亂當晚的“特習會”晚宴，這是此次峰會的一場重頭戲，但他認為值得冒險。博爾頓長期以來一直主張對華強硬。特朗普當時還不知道這個計劃。後來，對於博爾頓是否將此事告訴了特朗普，或者此行動是否已向特朗普完全報備，白宮內部眾說紛紜。

當孟晚舟搭上飛往溫哥華的航班時，美國聯邦調查局（FBI）特工傳來了孟晚舟此行裝扮的細節：一件黑色Abercrombie & Fitch連帽衫，深色運動褲，長發剛剛過肩。

聯邦檢察官以銀行欺詐罪對孟晚舟和華為提起了密封起訴（sealed indictment），稱孟晚舟曾幫助隱瞞該公司在伊朗的業務往來。證據是孟晚舟2013年在香港一家餐廳的包間內向匯豐控股有限公司（HSBC Holdings PLC, 0005.HK, HSBC, 簡稱﹕匯豐控股）一名高管展示的PPT演示文件。她在演示文件中稱，華為沒有違反美國對伊製裁。

這一指控的範圍很窄，但將服務於一個更廣泛的國家安全目標——幫助華盛頓說服美國盟友華為不可信。

在溫哥華機場的一間會議室裏，六名加拿大警官和邊防警察研究了孟晚舟的照片。“沒收孟身上的所有電子設備，以保留證據，因為FBI將會提出一項請求，”一名加拿大警員在筆記本上潦草地寫道。

引渡孟晚舟的請求是美國政府以加密文件的形式發來的，加拿大當局花了一天多時間才解密。這一延遲意味著同樣前往布宜諾斯艾利斯參加G20峰會的加拿大總理杜魯多（Justin Trudeau）直到在警員們在溫哥華機場65號登機口廊橋就位時才被告知美方的這一請求。

上午11點18分，國泰航空（Cathay Pacific Airways）的838號航班滑停在65號登機口。

兩名邊防警察把孟晚舟護送到一個櫃台，在那裏，另一名邊防警察仔細檢查了她的行李。警察提出了一些問題，其中包括：華為是否曾在伊朗銷售過產品？他們沒收了她的電子設備，並要求她提供密碼。按照美國方麵的要求，他們把孟晚舟的電子設備分別放入不同的安全袋。這些設備包括一部紅色外殼的華為手機，一個黑粉色的256G U盤，一台粉色邊框的MacBook以及一台貼有小熊維尼貼紙的iPad。在社交媒體上，小熊維尼有時被用來嘲諷習近平。

“你犯了欺詐罪，現在我們將逮捕你，然後你將被送回美國，”一名警官告訴孟晚舟。

“我？”她說。“你是說我在美國犯了欺詐罪？”

“我不知道細節，”另一名警官回答。“他們對你提出了欺詐指控，涉及你的公司，呃，華為？”

一名警官帶著歉意說：“我們隻是在協助美國。”

在警察局，孟晚舟被按了手印，她被允許打電話給一名律師，這是華為在倉促之間能找到的唯一會說中文的律師，是一位專利律師。當這名律師趕到警察局時，孟晚舟的呼吸變得劇烈而短促，這讓警察很擔心，他們將她送到了醫院。

與此同時，特朗普和習近平正在布宜諾斯艾利斯吃著阿根廷西冷牛排，搭配2014年份的馬爾貝克紅酒。這場晚宴的目的是在不斷升級的美中貿易戰中達成休戰協議。兩人似乎都不知道孟晚舟被捕。坐在特朗普身邊的博爾頓沒有提及此事。

據中國政府官員透露，沒過多久，習近平就知道了此事，這讓他覺得受到了欺騙和侮辱。他剛剛同意采購更多的美國食品和能源。

據了解談話內容的知情人士說，幾天後，特朗普在白宮的一個聖誕晚宴上質問博爾頓。“你為什麽要逮捕孟晚舟？”特朗普說。“難道你不知道她是中國的伊萬卡·特朗普？”

12月6日，習近平回到北京時，中國外交部官員向他通報了孟晚舟被捕的情況。她被拘留，承受著巨大的精神壓力。在《福布斯》（Forbes）雜誌的2017中國最傑出商界女性排行榜上，孟晚舟位列第八。

中國公安部手上有一份加拿大人名單，公安部建議習近平從這份名單中挑選兩個人。中國外交部在北京召見了加拿大駐華大使，並警告說中國將采取反製措施。

兩天後，一名男子試圖登上下午2點從中國東北的一個城市飛往韓國的航班，在被攔住後他向加拿大駐中國使館打來電話。

斯帕弗說：“我正受到訊問。”

當天晚上，加拿大使館又接到一個電話，是關於康明凱的。他在北京正走在路上，突然被塞進了一輛車裏。

加拿大使館官員等了好幾個小時，想獲得二人的消息，希望中國有關部門能夠釋放他們。然後，使館辦公室的傳真機響了起來，這預示著事情麻煩了。因為傳真是中國外交部喜好用的溝通方式。這台傳真機接連發出電文，告知兩名涉嫌威脅中國國家安全的加拿大公民被拘留。

加拿大大使在北京與相關官員會麵。中方官員要求釋放孟晚舟。其中一位中國官員表示，解鈴還需係鈴人。

一個月後在大雪紛飛的魁北克，杜魯多在內閣集思會上確立了加拿大政府的立場。那就是逮捕無辜的加拿大公民不會迫使加拿大釋放孟晚舟。

杜魯多對內閣成員表示：“加拿大不接受霸淩。”

杜魯多是一位自由黨領導人，在公開場合有時會表現得有些少年氣，但也有強硬的一麵。就在他上任之前，伊斯蘭國（Islamic State）武裝分子綁架了兩名加拿大老人。後來，杜魯多拒絕支付贖金，兩人被斬首。

杜魯多在該內閣會議上說，這是他出任總理以來的最糟糕時刻，但這是正確的決定。

當加拿大駐華大使在公開講話中說孟晚舟有充分理由反對引渡後，他被杜魯多解雇了。

為了使孟晚舟獲釋，華為組建了一個由十多名律師組成的團隊，其中不乏一些企業界收費最高的律師。這些人一致認為，孟晚舟被不公平地卷入了美中競爭。

出庭律師Reid Weingarten是華為招募的律師之一，他在2019年初與美國司法部官員會麵時帶了一份報告。該報告詳細說明了辯護團隊認為孟晚舟會輕鬆勝訴的原因。Weingarten之前的客戶包括高盛集團（Goldman Sachs Group Inc., GS）的貝蘭克梵（Lloyd Blankfein），以及被定罪的性犯罪者愛潑斯坦（Jeffrey Epstein）等。

孟晚舟的律師們表示，將一份六年前的PowerPoint演示文稿提升到銀行欺詐指控的層麵，這是美國司法部會後悔的不自量力的行為。一些人對檢方對該案進行審判的意願表示懷疑。

然而，他們發現迅速解決問題的希望渺茫。負責該案的聯邦檢察官們很有信心。如果孟晚舟想認罪，他們願意談判，否則就法庭上見。

對白宮來說，該案關係重大。華為是爭奪5G控製權的對手，5G無線網絡預計將為全球數以十億計的設備傳輸數據。這是一場美國不想輸掉的較量。

華為5G設備（天線、基站和路由器）不僅比西方競爭對手交付速度更快，而且價格更便宜。該公司當時已經成為世界領先企業。與具有百年曆史的通訊設備對手諾基亞公司（Nokia Co., NOK）和愛立信（Ericsson, ERIC）相比，華為是後起之秀。

美國國家安全官員認為華為正在建立可能被中國用來進行全球監聽的架構。這些官員對這一危險深信不疑，其他國家認為相關危險是可以控製的。

2009年，美國網絡間諜潛入了該公司的網絡。美國聯邦調查局的分析員擔心中國政府可能利用這些網絡進行間諜活動，於是向上司發出了警報。美國國防部官員敦促美國電信公司不要使用華為設備。2012年國會的一項調查斷定，中國可能利用華為設備進行間諜活動，但沒有找到明確的證據證明中國存在這樣的行為。

到了特朗普政府時期，華為已經建立了令競爭對手似乎難以超越的領先地位。一份在情報官員中流傳的分析報告警告說，華為可能將控製全球80%的5G設備市場。國家安全官員擔心，這將為中國提供一個監聽工具，有可能收集從核電站藍圖到北大西洋公約組織（North Atlantic Treaty Organization, 簡稱﹕北約）軍事計劃的各種機密。

國防官員和外交官與美國最親密的外國夥伴接觸，推動對華為的禁令。華為則派出了自己的遊說代表、律師和公關公司，聲稱從未進行過間諜活動，將來也不會進行。華為向特朗普政府提出挑戰，要求披露其聲稱掌握的證據，美國稱這些材料是機密，要保護材料來源和獲取方法。

白宮轉而提供了一點微弱的證據。即2017年北京出台的一項情報法，規定“任何組織和公民都應當支持、協助和配合國家情報工作”。

特朗普政府主張，華為從事間諜活動是受到法律要求的。華為反駁說，該法隻在中國適用。

美國外交官將該法打印出來帶到世界各地的盟友那裏，大聲讀給被夾在兩個超級大國的較量之間左右為難的官員聽。英國、韓國、德國、意大利、墨西哥和加拿大在要求禁用華為的壓力下退縮了。一些國家在這場不斷升級的行動麵前不知所措。

華為說自己是一個中國的成功故事，其創始人的動機不是與美國競爭，而是對美國的欽佩。

任正非曾是一名軍隊工程師，1987年開始在深圳的一間公寓裏銷售通訊開關；深圳是一個臨近香港的內地城市。在他的講述中，1993年一次穿行美國的灰狗（Greyhound）巴士之旅激發了他的遠大抱負。

任正非回憶起在達拉斯參觀德州儀器公司（Texas Instruments Inc., TXN）占地6萬英畝的總部時的情景。那裏的員工加班加點帶他參觀了一整天的研究設施，展示了新高速設備的技術細節。

在當時全球領先的晶片製造商之一、位於加州的National Semiconductor，他觀看了一場光學設備和3G網絡交換技術的展覽。

任正非雇了一輛出租車，繞著International Business Machines Corp. （IBM）的矽穀研究設施轉了一圈，計算園區麵積有多少平方公裏。他在一篇博客文章中回憶道，他覺得“美國將經久不衰”。

25年後，他的公司在人工智能研究領域處於領先地位，其智能手機品牌的銷量超過了蘋果公司（Apple Inc., AAPL）。華為在深圳郊外開設了一個占地4平方英裏的園區，瑞士風格的有軌電車穿過複刻版的歐洲城堡以及巴黎和意大利維羅納地標建築，這裏是華為的辦公室和研究實驗室所在地。

隨著華為發展壯大，該公司被來自前員工、競爭對手和美國官員的各種指控所困擾，他們指稱該公司的進步依賴於欺騙。華為否認了這些指控，並稱其致力於遵守業務所在國適用的法律法規。該公司與指控其竊取商業機密的競爭對手達成了和解，其中包括思科係統（Cisco Systems Inc., CSCO, 簡稱﹕思科）和Quintel Technology Ltd.。

在美國司法部位於紐約的一個辦公室裏，涉及華為的搜查令和訪談筆錄日積月累。一些公司擔心，如果它們把華為告上法庭，中國會進行報複。這令美國司法部越來越認為，華為的競爭優勢是不會受到懲罰。

一家銀行最終為調查人員提供了美國政府第一起案件的證據，該案件起源於紐約布魯克林辦事處。

2013年，匯豐曾要求華為就一篇新聞報導作出解釋，該報導稱華為秘密擁有並經營一家在伊朗銷售華為產品的公司。後來，孟晚舟在那家香港餐廳告訴匯豐高管，華為遵守了美國的製裁規定。

那次會麵結束幾個月後，在孟晚舟於紐約肯尼迪國際機場（John F. Kennedy International Airport）轉機時，搜查她電子設備的邊防人員恢複了一份她關於伊朗問題談話要點的文本文件。該文件已被刪除，但沒有從硬碟中清除。

匯豐因其自身的法律失誤而不得不向聯邦檢察官提供了一份關於其與華為業務的檔案，其中涉及孟晚舟關於華為在伊朗的交易的說法，因此這份談話要點文件很有用。

為了保持調查的機密性，聯邦調查人員在文件中用代號來指代匯豐。匯豐和其他多家配合美國司法部調查的銀行擔心它們在華高管的安全以及在華業務關係。

2017年4月，檢方向華為發出傳票，要求其回答關於是否在受製裁國家開展業務的問題，之後華為高管不再前往美國。

2018年8月，檢方針對華為和孟晚舟的檢控行動準備就緒。檢方一直保密，直到孟晚舟在一個他們有能力采取行動的國家落地。

孟晚舟被軟禁在溫哥華一棟麵朝北岸山脈、價值420萬美元的房子裏。這是她在溫哥華的兩處住宅中較小的一處。

美國官員曾希望加拿大能將孟晚舟關在監獄裏，直到她被引渡。檢方在2018年12月的保釋聽證會上提出，孟晚舟有潛逃的風險。作為億萬富豪的女兒，孟晚舟至少有七本護照。

然而，一名法官批準了孟晚舟的保釋，保釋金為1000萬加元（約合750萬美元），但下令每天晚上11點到次日早上6點她必須待在家裏。其他時間則可以自由走動。通過孟晚舟腳踝上佩戴的GPS監控器，有關部門可以查看她的行蹤。

後來，出於安全考慮，孟晚舟獲得了法院的許可，搬到了一棟價值1230萬美元、有七間臥室的別墅，與美國總領事的官邸僅一戶之隔。任正非派遣了一個由華為員工組成的團隊，幫助處理公共關係和他女兒的辯護事宜。

巴西辦事處的一名副總裁和一名駐中國的法務總監最先抵達。他們住在附近的一棟別墅裏。華為總部的一名公關經理隨後到達，並開始在法院台階上舉行臨時新聞發布會，這惹惱了孟晚舟和她的法律顧問。他們擔心這名公關經理的公開聲明可能會使案件受困，但任正非沒有接受他們的反對意見。

到2019年4月時，華為安排了一個更高階的團隊來運作，其中包括任正非的翻譯和私人助理，他的私人助理擔任聯絡人。

前歐洲銷售主管指導孟晚舟的日常尊巴課程和瑜伽鍛煉。私人廚師準備了注重健康的膳食。一位花匠為餐桌安排花束。任正非試圖鼓勵他的女兒在等待釋放期間攻讀博士學位。

這群助手和助理被稱為“薩布麗娜團隊”（Sabrina's Team），薩布麗娜（Sabrina）是孟晚舟用過的一個英文名。

孟晚舟外出時，一組由法院指派的安保人員會跟著她；這些安保人員在她家院子裏搭了帳篷駐守。時尚精品店為她的私人購物之旅提供方便。孟晚舟與朋友們在皇朝海鮮酒家（Dynasty Seafood）用餐，這群溫哥華的中國精英們在那裏品嚐點心、觀賞城市景觀。

華為之前已在加拿大通訊設備市場立足，包括建了一個5G研究中心。孟晚舟被捕後不久，華為加大了在溫哥華的廣告宣傳力度，許多公交車站、廣告牌和購物中心都能看到華為的廣告條幅，其中很多用中文寫著該公司的新口號——華為：智慧新高度。

2019年3月6日，即孟晚舟被捕三個月後，她在安保人員和電視台攝像機的簇擁下進入法庭參加引渡聽證會。

法院外的台階上，反對中國政府在香港采取壓製行動的抗議者點燃了一麵中國國旗。一些人舉著標語牌，上麵用大寫字母寫著“EXTRADITE MENG!”，意思是“引渡孟晚舟”。

這場法庭聽證會隻持續了幾分鍾，標誌著一場曠日持久的法律戰的開始。孟晚舟每次去法院，路上都會有一名維吾爾族護士拿著康明凱和斯帕弗的照片，抗議他們被拘。

在位於中朝邊境的中國東北部城市丹東一所監獄，斯帕弗和另外20來個囚犯被關在315號牢房。晚上，他們像沙丁魚一樣並排入睡。天氣炎熱時，擁擠的囚室內十分悶熱，夜裏又很涼。餐食很少且一成不變：白菜、雞蛋和米飯。

斯帕弗是卡爾加裏人，21歲時去了韓國，教過英語。他對威權主義的朝鮮產生了極大的興趣，並開始組織前往朝鮮的旅行。在2013年和2014年，他為曾效力於芝加哥公牛隊（Chicago Bulls）的前籃球明星丹尼斯·羅德曼（Dennis Rodman）策劃了三次朝鮮之旅；羅德曼本人對這個神秘國度及其領導人金正恩（Kim Jong Un）很感興趣。

斯帕弗以完美的朝鮮口音在韓國的派對上給客人留下深刻印象。

康明凱和斯帕弗曾在北京的一次晚餐上見過一麵。這兩名同在海外的加拿大人聊到了中國、朝鮮和中朝兩國之間的關係。

20世紀90年代中期，康明凱大學畢業後去了布達佩斯，加入了西方人湧入曾經封閉的中歐國家的浪潮。他當過記者，在一個朋克樂隊裏唱過歌，之後回到了加拿大，並在外交部門任職。

在北京市第一看守所裏，關押康明凱的監室沒有窗戶，日光燈全天24小時不熄。他在那裏被關押了近六個月，沒有呼吸到一絲新鮮空氣。為了打破單調的生活，他想出了一套鍛煉流程，每天做俯臥撐和6分鍾平板支撐，並在狹小的空間裏走7000步。

在康明凱被關押的頭前個月裏，看守所方麵對他進行了最長10個小時的訊問。他們多次就康明凱在加拿大駐中國大使館的工作進行了提問。

2019年6月，在看守所待了150多天後，康明凱獲準往家裏寄一批信件。大使館對這些手寫信件進行了掃描，並通過電子郵件發送給他在多倫多的妻子。

44歲的納吉布拉（Vina Nadjibulla）是2001年在哥倫比亞大學（Columbia University）認識康明凱的，當時兩人都在該校學習國際關係。納吉布拉目前是一名國際安全分析員。她在戰亂中的喀布爾長大，父母一個是蘇聯的猶太人，一個是阿富汗的穆斯林；她在聯合國從事衝突預防工作。康明凱是在聯合國日內瓦辦事處的大會堂（U.N. Assembly Hall）向她求婚的。

康明凱後來進入了加拿大外交部門工作，納吉布拉則從事塞拉利昂的戰後重建工作。康明凱被捕時，這對夫婦已經分居。但兩人都曾承諾，如果對方在國外工作期間遭到綁架，他們將出手相助。

事件發生後，納吉布拉將自己的事情暫時放到一邊，在多倫多、華盛頓和渥太華之間奔走，向能夠幫助康明凱獲釋的官員請願。2019年6月，杜魯多邀請納吉布拉到他的辦公室，納吉布拉讀了康明凱寫的一些信。

“如果說這個地獄中還有微弱的一線希望的話，那就是：創傷在我的腦海中挖出了心理痛苦的深洞，”一封信中寫道。“我發現自己用對你和對生命的愛填滿了那些深淵，這種愛巨大而深沉，比我經曆過的任何愛都更深刻、更令人欣慰。”

“來吧，在精神上陪我坐坐，伴我同行，”康明凱寫道。“幫我減少孤獨感。讓我分享我對你的愛，我們會一起渡過這個難關。”

大約在那一周後，杜魯多抵達日本大阪，出席G20峰會。他開始遊說那位能夠釋放這兩個加拿大公民的人——自毛澤東時代以來最有權勢的中國領導人習近平。

（二）幸運的突破口

在與西方國家領導人會麵時，習近平很少開玩笑，也很少露出笑容。他常常以長篇大論開場，其中的談話要點與他的公開聲明幾乎一模一樣。他在講話時嚴格按照擬定的文稿，以至於他的翻譯隻是讀出事先備好的英文文本。講完之後，習近平會問：“你不同意嗎？”

白宮官員在分析閉門會談的文字記錄時，往往難以理解習近平是否說了一些他事先準備好的聲明之外的實質性內容。

在雙方的交談中，特朗普會嚐試用六、七種方式直截了當地問一個具體問題，習近平會重複同樣的模糊回答。

全球其他一些領導人閑聊時會互稱對方的名字，比如唐納德（Donald）、安格拉（Angela）、弗拉基米爾（Vladimir）。而習近平即使在非公開會議上也堅持使用“總統先生”、“總理女士”和其他尊稱。

在整個2019年上半年，杜魯多一直未能與習近平會麵。加拿大駐華外交官被拒之門外。中方對杜魯多的答複令人沮喪：若中國國家元首習近平與杜魯多直接對話，將有悖外交禮儀，杜魯多隻是加拿大的政府首腦，而加拿大的國家元首是當時的英國女王伊麗莎白二世（Queen Elizabeth II）。

中國政府通過貿易限製來表達自身立場。中國針對加拿大菜籽油頒布了進口禁令。2019年5月，中國禁止從加拿大的兩個頂級屠宰場進口豬肉。在當年G20峰會召開前三天，中國禁止了所有加拿大肉類產品進口。

杜魯多讓特朗普在大阪G20峰會上與習近平會麵時為康明凱和斯帕弗說話。

在他們會麵時，特朗普遞給習近平一張紙，上麵列出了被關押在中國的美國人的名字。這些用中文和英文書寫的人名中也包括斯帕弗和康明凱。

特朗普略帶恭維地說，如果中國能幫助這些人回國，“那將是一個偉大的姿態”。

習近平在查看這些人名的同時直言不諱地指出，他與特朗普上一次會麵是孟晚舟被捕的那天。

杜魯多是偶然得到的機會。智利是G20峰會的受邀國，但該國代表沒有出席預定的大會。這使得加拿大代表的座位按字母順序排在中國和巴西之間——習近平坐在杜魯多的右邊。

杜魯多向習近平遞了一張手寫的中文字條。字條上寫著：我們得溝通一下。杜魯多建議他們挑選兩名親信開始私下交流。

兩人走到會場的一側，通過翻譯進行了寒暄並握了手。

數天之後，谘詢公司麥肯錫（McKinsey & Co., Inc.）的前全球管理合夥人鮑達民（Dominic Barton）帶著一個薄薄的文件夾進入了北京市有警衛把守的釣魚台國賓館。他的此次會晤是非正式和秘密的。他先前告訴秘書自己休假去了。

這位60歲的加拿大人是在中國經濟奇跡的浪潮中發跡的，他在中國生活和工作了十多年，與中國企業家、高管和黨的領導人建立了聯係。他寫過兩本關於中國的書籍，並曾在北京的清華大學（Tsinghua University）任教。

鮑達民當時並不是外交官。但杜魯多相信，鮑達民可以打破這個外交僵局，把康明凱和斯帕弗帶回國。

一位顧問曾告訴杜魯多，鮑達民與中國官員首次會晤順利的可能性為40%，會晤融洽以至於安排第二次會談的可能性為40%，有20%的可能性會談崩。

在同這位顧問一起走進釣魚台國賓館會議室時，滿頭銀發的鮑達民向兩位外交部官員微笑。一位年長的中共官員開始宣讀一疊文件，中間會停頓以便翻譯跟上他，帶來了戲劇性的效果。

“你們逮捕了孟晚舟。”

“你們是美國的走狗。”

鮑達民打斷了該官員的話，這位由習近平任命的外交部官員抬起頭，翻回到第一頁。然後他開始從頭重讀。這位官員在三個小時內宣讀了一份充斥著謾罵聲的稿子，每當鮑達民提出抗議，他都會從頭重讀。

鮑達民要求暫停會談，他走到走廊上。“我想我們正遭遇那5%的可能性，”那位顧問說，他坦言結果比預期要差。

鮑達民在最後一小時的威嚇中保持沉默。這位中國官員重點提到了加拿大1999年頒布的《引渡法》（Extradition Act）第23條第3款，該條款授權加拿大司法部長可取消引渡案件。

“你連自己國家的法律都不懂！”這位官員說。

會晤結束時，鮑達民詢問中國外交部是否會參加在渥太華舉行的第二次會談。這位官員說，不會，但歡迎這些加拿大人再次來北京。

這是鮑達民給杜魯多帶來的唯一好消息。

“好吧，”杜魯多在與鮑達民通電話時說。“嗯，那還可以。”

幾周後，鮑達民被任命為加拿大駐中國大使。他迎來的第一次考驗是在北京人民大會堂與習近平的一次會晤。在此次會晤中，鮑達民用他不太流利的普通話發表了一次簡短的講話。這次會晤僅持續了短短一分鍾。

“我在中國的使命是解決這個問題，”鮑達民說。“我想讓孟女士和我們的人回國。”

習近平說：我以前不知道你會說普通話。

“我不會……就隻能說這麽幾句，”鮑達民回答道。

習近平笑了笑。他說，要修複一段關係需要兩個人的努力。

中國外交部長王毅隨後提出了有些刺耳的建議。

王毅拍了拍鮑達民的背，說：你有很多工作要做，你得刻苦練習了！

不久之後，鮑達民首次到訪中國的一所監獄。在獄警陪同下，他經過了一間審訊室，審訊室裏有一把金屬椅子，上麵配有綁帶。

獄警告訴斯帕弗有人探望。

兩人在一間接待室見麵，他們被要求不要討論斯帕弗的案件。斯帕弗帶著手銬，鮑達民隔著一張桌子身體向他傾斜。鮑達民說：“我的語速會很快，這樣可以偷偷聊一些案子的事兒。”他說：“我想討論四件事。但首先，你有什麽事情想說嗎？”

斯帕弗沒睡好，看起來有些呆滯。他說：“這要持續到什麽時候？每天我醒來，情況還是一樣。”

鮑達民說他也不知道。他迅速說了為了釋放斯帕弗所做的努力，以及斯帕弗父親的身體情況。他的父親在卡爾加裏，身患重病。

當獄警發現提到孟晚舟時會打斷對話，鮑達民換了話題之後還會聊回這個案子。

鮑達民還去了北京的監獄探望康明凱。康明凱很憤怒，指著獄警說他們虐待。他們收走了康明凱的眼鏡，稱監獄規定禁止金屬物品。

他說：“記下他們的號碼。”他身高超過1.9米，穿著的囚服太小不夠長。他說“記下來！”

康明凱在信中稱，這個監獄就是混凝土沙漠。

他還要求了解他的釋放情況。“這事什麽時候能得到解決？”

2019年12月3日，北約領導人在白金漢宮舉行的香檳招待會上觥籌交錯時，康明凱和斯帕弗正準備度過他們在獄中的第二個聖誕節。

招待會在綠色客廳（Green Drawing Room）舉行，這是一個長長的行廊，鋪著深紅色的地毯，裝飾著絲綢牆紙和鑲有金框的英國君主照片。凱特·米德爾頓（Kate Middleton）和威廉（Prince William）王子在一群負責捍衛西方的北約官員中穿行。杜魯多與女王進行了私下交談。

杜魯多的首席外交政策顧問David Morrison乘機與白宮幕僚長馬爾瓦尼（Mick Mulvaney）說了幾句話。當天早些時候，杜魯多向特朗普講述了兩個邁克爾正在遭受的苦難。美國同意在華盛頓舉行會談，加拿大對這個開頭表示歡迎。

白宮已經恢複了與北京方麵的換囚談判。在博爾頓之後擔任國家安全顧問的奧布萊恩（Robert O'Brien）不久前在曼穀參加了一次亞洲領導人會議。

在會上，他為兩名加拿大囚犯準備的幾本書讓中國總理李克強感到意外。給康明凱的書是勞拉·希倫布蘭德（Laura Hillenbrand）描寫二戰囚犯路易斯·讚佩裏尼（Louis Zamperini）的《堅不可摧》（Unbroken），給斯帕弗的書是一本劉易斯（C.S. Lewis）的小說，以及每人一本《聖經》。這些書裏有手寫的標記，讓這兩個被囚禁的人放心，全世界都知道他們的遭遇。

奧布萊恩在傳遞這些書的同時，也傳遞了一個外交資訊：華盛頓想要對話。

幾天後，中國駐美使館臨時代辦在白宮旁邊的艾森豪威爾行政辦公大樓（Eisenhower Executive Office Building）低調會見了美國國家安全委員會工作人員。這位中國代表說，美國無權要求釋放這兩位加拿大公民，“這不關美國的事。”

不過，中國政府願意先考慮另一項人員交換，以建立互信。美國可以加速驅逐中國銀行股份有限公司（Bank Of China Ltd.,簡稱﹕中國銀行）經理許國俊，他因腐敗相關指控被中國有關部門通緝。

作為回報，美國人希望中國釋放台裔美國牧師林大衛（David Lin），以及紐約州長島的華裔美國商人李凱。前者在中國傳教後被判終身監禁，後者因間諜罪正在服10年刑期。

當年聖誕節幾天前，一個加拿大代表團在馬爾瓦尼的白宮辦公室碰麵。那時美國政府官員正忙於處理特朗普的第一次彈劾聽證會。

加拿大駐美國代理大使希爾曼（Kirsten Hillman）和鮑達民、Morrison圍在美國司法部負責國家安全的助理部長德默斯（John Demers）和副國家安全顧問博明（Matt Pottinger）旁邊近身交談。博明說，孟晚舟越早被引渡，康明凱和斯帕弗就能越早獲釋。

該加拿大代表團認為，孟晚舟的上訴可能會持續數年，幾乎肯定會以達成協議告終。他們說，如果是這樣的話，美國越早同意達成協議，對康明凱和斯帕弗就越有利。

在2020年春季舉行了幾次影片會議後，德默斯告訴這些加拿大外交官，美國司法部正在考慮一份暫緩起訴協議：如果孟晚舟承諾不再犯下其他聯邦罪行，檢方不會推進指控。

問題的症結在於，孟晚舟必須承認有不當行為。她的律師說，孟晚舟絕不會同意，因為她沒有做錯任何事。

鮑達民和他在北京最親密的助手經常在加拿大大使館下麵的一個房間裏工作，這個房間的牆壁包有金屬，以防禦電子監控。這個房間名為Salle de Deux Innocents（兩個無辜者的房間），以加拿大前總理皮耶·杜魯多（Pierre Trudeau）與一位朋友搭便車穿越毛澤東時代的中國後寫的一篇遊記命名。

鮑達民和他的助手開會時，翻閱了寫有一些官員姓名的翻頁本頁麵，他們希望這些官員能說服中國，看到與美國司法部解決孟晚舟案的邏輯。

孟晚舟被捕幾個月前，兩國還在尋求達成一項自由貿易協定。現在，國事活動邀請已寥寥無幾。鮑達民原本以在中國能達成協議而知名，現在，連老熟人也不回他電話。一位官員稱：“我們已經開始期待美國走出這一步，但我們與你有50年的關係。”

鮑達民向一位同事透露，這項任務不僅僅是舉步維艱。情況在朝著羞辱的方向發展。

2020年春天，鮑達民曾希望能在華為創始人任正非那裏碰碰運氣。他獲得了與任正非約好在華為深圳總部見麵的機會，在那裏他發現任正非對他女兒的前景頗為樂觀。

任正非通過他的翻譯說，孟晚舟很快就會回家了。她的律師有很多理由對她的引渡提出上訴，他們相信其中會有一個理由成立。他說，相信加拿大的法律體係會做正確的事。

孟晚舟、她的律師團隊和華為對勝訴充滿信心，他們甚至已經打點好行裝，包下了波音公司（Boeing Co., BA）生產的第787架波音787飛機，這架紀念性的夢想客機將把她從溫哥華送回家。

2020年5月27日孟晚舟案法庭聽證會的幾天前，她的助手們在不列顛哥倫比亞省最高法院大樓的台階上排練，計劃屆時拍攝一張照片，即華為的同事以及家庭工作人員與孟晚舟一起，在想像中的支持者麵前擺出勝利手勢。

聽證會當天的上午，他們遇到的卻是大聲奚落、舉著標語牌的人群，標語上寫著“抵製華為”和“釋放加拿大人康明凱和斯帕弗”。

孟晚舟的代表律師在法庭上告訴法官，美國的引渡請求是錯誤的。根據加拿大法律，隻有在加拿大和美國都屬於犯罪行為，才符合引渡條件。

這些律師表示，盡管美國檢察官指控孟晚舟犯有銀行欺詐罪，但該案實際上是關於美國對伊朗的製裁，而加拿大沒有製裁伊朗。此案主審法官駁回了該申訴。

當時康明凱的妻子納吉布拉觀看了法官判決，還做了筆記。她花了大量時間跟蹤此案進展。在這場聽證會的法官作出裁決之後，她前往華盛頓向官員們介紹情況。

納吉布拉每個月都會給康明凱寄一封信，傳遞朋友們的問候。她在信中加入了一些隱晦的資訊，比如“我漫步在我們以前常去的地方”，意思是她一直在遊說聯合國的官員。

納吉布拉還發來一些營養和健身方麵的建議。康明凱開始在飯菜裏撒上監獄食堂的奶粉和芝麻粉，以增加蛋白質攝入量；他嚐試做單腿深蹲來強化核心力量。康明凱的生活過於封閉，以至於他都不知道疫情正在擾亂這個世界。

康明凱每個月閱讀二三十本書，他研讀了哲學和地緣政治類書籍，看了托爾斯泰、卡夫卡等名家的經典作品，以及曼德拉（Nelson Mandela）的獄中自傳《漫漫自由路》（The Long Walk to Freedom）。他和斯帕弗都讀了維克多·弗蘭克（Viktor Frankl）關於奧斯威辛集中營生活的沉思《追尋生命的意義》（Man's Search for Meaning）。

斯帕弗把書分享給很少有機會讀到這些書的獄友。作為回報，他們幫他學寫漢字。

康明凱的家信中夾雜著書評，妻子納吉布拉會把他的評論轉發給一個由身在美國、加拿大及亞洲的朋友和同事組成的非正式讀書會。

經過幾個月的請求，康明凱獲中國獄警允許給家人打電話。納吉布拉接聽了。

“V，是你嗎？”他說。

2020年夏天，疫情在全球範圍內蔓延之際，FBI特工逮捕了五名學術研究人員，這五人大多被指控在簽證申請中撒謊。特朗普（Donald Trump）政府官員認為他們正利用美國的研究來推動中國的軍事發展。五人都做了無罪抗辯。

上述逮捕行動促使中國恢複了與美國的“換囚”秘密討論，相關討論先前在疫情下陷入了沉寂。北京方麵想要換回中國研究人員。華盛頓方麵想要換回一些美國人——以及康明凱和斯帕弗。

美國國家安全委員會、國務院和司法部官員與中國外交部外交官和公安部人士開了一場影片會議。美國堅持使用Microsoft Teams而不是中國軟體舉行此次會議。

中國外交部的一位官員說，他們是學者，他們隻是在做研究。

美國表示願意釋放這些研究人員，並加快遣返因腐敗指控而被中國通緝的銀行家許國俊。

作為交換條件，美方希望中方釋放商人李凱和牧師林大衛，以及自2018年以來被中國阻止離境的美國姐弟Cynthia Liu和Victor Liu。美方還要求中方允許另外三名美國公民離開中國，其中包括兩名兒童。

這場擬議的人員交換行動是以七名中國人換七名美國人外加上述兩名加拿大人，將成為冷戰以來規模最大的換囚行動之一。

當美國官員提出康明凱和斯帕弗的名字時，中國公安部的一位官員說，中國人民不會允許康明凱和斯帕弗回家，除非孟晚舟能回家。

美國司法部的一位官員鼓勵中國官員與孟晚舟的律師商量接受美國聯邦檢察官的提議，以承認存在不當行為換取自由。這位美國官員說，說服她簽字。

但談判失敗。美國不會在不管那兩名加拿大人的情況下隻把美國人帶回來。孟晚舟則對美國檢察官的提議不感興趣。

孟晚舟告訴自己的律師，她絕不會承認有不當行為。如果有必要，在她的法律團隊為美國引渡案打官司的同時，她願意在溫哥華待上幾年。華為的聲譽當時正麵臨風險。

那年夏天，華為超越三星電子（Samsung Electronics Co., 005930.SE），成為全球最大的智能手機製造商。作為首席財務官，孟晚舟得保護她父親建立的這個帝國。

但華為帝國那時已經開始傾斜。

特朗普在2020年簽署了新的出口限製，阻止華為購買用美國設備生產的計算機晶片；他開始將華為稱為“間諜為”（Spyway）。這些限製措施後來擴大到世界各地使用美國技術的製造商。華為開始缺少生產智能手機所需的晶片，而智能手機約占該公司收入的一半。

華為還失去了讓其手機和平板電腦產品下載Google軟體的許可證。隨著銷量驟降，華為考慮轉向電動汽車。

加拿大在北約反情報簡報會上討論了康明凱和斯帕弗被捕事宜。與杜魯多交談過的西方領導人聽說了這兩人在監獄裏的悲慘處境。許多細節都來自納吉布拉。

世界上最富有的那些國家一個接一個地向美國的立場靠攏，切斷了與華為的聯係。

2020年7月，英國宣布到2027年將禁止華為進入該國網絡。兩周後，法國表示將停止為華為5G設備更新許可證，實際上封禁了該公司。到10月，英國議會國防委員會表示將加快實施對華為的禁令。

華為北美公共事務負責人Vincent Peng輾轉於美國、加拿大和中國，尋找遊說者與國會議員和外交官接觸，幫助釋放孟晚舟。

特朗普在11月輸掉了2020年的總統選舉，在新政府即將上台之際，Peng在聖誕節幾天前給鮑達民打電話。他說，華為打算在拜登（Joe Biden）那裏試試運氣。

拜登首次以總統身份進行的雙邊會晤是2021年2月23日的美加會晤，當時加拿大總理杜魯多首先要談的就是讓康明凱和斯帕弗獲釋。“這兩個人在監獄裏，” 杜魯多說。“他們遭受牢獄之災是因為加拿大正在履行對美國的承諾……我們要解救他們。”

“我不會幹涉司法程式，”拜登答複說。“其他任何事，我都樂意出力。”

拜登上台後，習近平希望重啟美中關係，孟晚舟被拘案便是其中一個議題。但從所有跡象來看，美中關係仍不穩定。

在2021年3月份的阿拉斯加會議上，中國最高級別外交官員楊潔篪公開指責美國鼓動其他國家攻擊中國。在非公開場合，美國國務卿布林肯（Antony Blinken）提到康明凱和斯帕弗，稱嚴肅的國家不會用綁架作為談判籌碼。

當月，康明凱和斯帕弗因間諜罪閉門受審。判決結果直到後來才宣布。

（三）兩位領導人

隨著拜登上台執政，習近平開始視此案為美中關係修複的障礙之一。習近平認為，中國已經表現出足夠的決心對抗西方的挑釁。

他指定外交部副部長謝鋒來結束孟晚舟案的僵局。彼時，習近平已親手寫下100多份關於孟晚舟案的指示給下屬。

2021年7月，美國司法部撤銷了對上述五名中國研究人員的指控，緩和了兩國的緊張關係。幾天後，謝鋒參加了在天津舉行的美中高層會議，這是三個多月以來的首次此類會議。

在圍繞疫情和人權問題的激烈交鋒中，美國副國務卿舍曼（Wendy Sherman）表示，如果孟晚舟與美國檢方達成和解，美國國務院不會阻止孟晚舟回到中國。

這正是謝鋒所尋求的保證。

天津會議兩周後，鮑達民得知斯帕弗將在丹東接受宣判。鮑達民的團隊將多名盟國外交官邀請至法院。如果加拿大無法阻止判決，希望全世界做個見證。

來自美國、日本、德國、澳大利亞和新西蘭的外交人員與鮑達民一起前往法庭。在法庭上，鮑達民與位於北京的加拿大駐華大使館開通了影片通話，講述了訴訟過程。

法官以間諜罪判處斯帕弗11年有期徒刑，依據是在斯帕弗手機上發現多張導致其被入罪的照片。鮑達民給斯帕弗的家人打了電話，然後與記者做了溝通。

這位大使說：“通過集體出席和共同發聲，我們向中國和中國政府傳遞了一個強烈的信號：全世界都在關注這件事。”

一個月後，鮑達民應召前往美國大使館的安全室，閱讀了拜登與習近平通話的文字記錄。這兩位領導人再次相互施壓，要求釋放囚犯。

北京方麵表示，這是兩位領導人達成的共識。

後來，鮑達民去青海訪問一個特殊兒童服務組織，當結束訪問時，他突然接到一個電話。助理遞給他一個手機並說：“謝鋒現在要和你通話！”鮑達民隨即進入一輛藍色麵包車。

謝鋒通過翻譯向鮑達民詢問了完成孟晚舟案延期起訴協議的細節。當時的症結在於美國將如何描述她的不當行為。鮑達民轉述了一些潛在措辭，謝鋒打斷了他，說起了英語。

很好，他說。

孟晚舟不會明確承認撒謊，隻會說她對匯豐的陳述“不真實”。

鮑達民將手機連上充電器，並取消了接下來的參觀。他和謝鋒一直在通電話，仔細討論這樁很容易失敗的交易的細節。這一切都取決於一個關鍵問題：習近平會同意嗎？

來自中共中央辦公廳的一份手寫信帶來了決定。習近平同意了。

9月19日晚，孟晚舟的一位新律師通過電子郵件向美國司法部發送了一份事實陳述。孟晚舟將承認她在2013年告訴匯豐的事情是不真實的。

五天後，孟晚舟在溫哥華通過影片電話會議參加了紐約布魯克林的庭審。她對指控不認罪，並接受了延期起訴協議。

同一天，鮑達民到監獄探望康明凱。他得知他將通過影片電話與康明凱和斯帕弗說話。斯帕弗已乘坐火車抵達北京。

一名安全官員對鮑達民稱：“你將有幸告訴他們，他們要回家了。”

康明凱和斯帕弗依次與他通話。鮑達民在與斯帕弗通話時，努力讓自己的嗓音保持穩定。

“你要回家了，”他說。

斯帕弗看上去一臉茫然。

“真的嗎？”

由於擔心節外生枝，妨礙換囚計劃，加拿大駐中國大使館隻有少數精挑細選的外交官知道此事。大使館工作人員安排好了行程。一位外交官的妻子自願烘焙花生醬餅幹，讓他們在回家的路上吃。

在溫哥華，孟晚舟和她的律師要在2021年9月24日下午4點的最後期限前完成與美國司法部達成協議的文書工作。

在這樁美國案件結案後，加拿大援引了《引渡法》第23條第3款，這項條款允許加拿大政府終止對孟晚舟的羈押。

在中國，斯帕弗和康明凱戴著手銬、蒙著眼睛抵達天津機場。鮑達民在貴賓休息室等待。

當這兩名加拿大人通過中國的出入境檢查站時，溫哥華機場的工作人員把孟晚舟剛蓋過章的護照遞給她。她擁抱了一名律師，並向中國領事官員作了告別。

孟晚舟在飛行途中得知，康明凱和斯帕弗也已獲釋。

飛機在深圳寶安國際機場降落時是當地時間的晚上，孟晚舟走下舷梯。她在紅色Carolina Herrera連衣裙上別了一枚中國國旗徽章，向等待的人群揮手致意。深圳的摩天大樓上打出她的名字。

在停機坪的紅地毯上，孟晚舟勝利地舉起雙手，並感謝了一個人：中國領導人習近平。

康明凱和斯帕弗乘坐的飛機降落在阿拉斯加的安克雷奇。在被雨水衝刷過的跑道上，康明凱彎腰親吻地麵。斯帕弗開玩笑說，他倆應該等飛到加拿大後再親。

杜魯多和少數隨行人員在卡爾加裏（斯帕弗的故鄉）迎接他們歸來。二人還拿到了迎接者帶來的外帶Tim Hortons咖啡。

康明凱繼續飛往多倫多。納吉布拉在那裏迎候他，他們在一架加拿大皇家空軍飛機旁擁抱。

第二天，中國允許劉氏姐弟返回美國。

斯帕弗回家後發現在自己的床上難以入睡，他已經習慣了在狹小的牢房裏擠在幾十個囚犯身旁入眠。斯帕弗目前仍居住在加拿大，經常與鮑達民通電話。

康明凱和納吉布拉在西班牙、加拿大和荷蘭逗留期間，花了幾周時間合寫了一本關於這場磨難的書。他們希望此書能為其他囚犯及其家人提供一份路線圖。朋友們說，盡管他們計劃離婚，但從某些方麵來說，二人現在比以往任何時候都更親密。

康明凱和斯帕弗回國三個月後，鮑達民辭去了大使職務，成為英澳礦業集團力拓股份有限公司（Rio Tinto Ltd., RIO.AU, RIO.LN, RIO）董事長。中澳兩國長期陷於貿易爭端，但中國上個月同意與力拓合作開發一個20億美元的鐵礦石項目。

孟晚舟最近升任華為董事長，輪值6個月。她不再踏足西方國家。

美國和加拿大說服另外66個國家簽署了一項反對任意拘留的宣言，以防止類似國際爭端的發生。

麵對美國所謂的“人質外交”的卷土重來（不僅是中國，伊朗、委內瑞拉、朝鮮和土耳其也是如此），拜登在今年夏天宣布其為國家緊急事件。他簽署了一項行政命令，授權美國對參與在海外非法扣留美國人的任何人實施製裁。

針對美國案件中的銀行欺詐和其他指控，華為表示不認罪。檢方周一公布了對兩名中國情報人員的指控，稱他們試圖賄賂一名美國執法人員，以獲取案件知情人士所說的華為調查的機密資訊。

加拿大在5月份宣布華為構成了國家安全風險，禁止華為在該國建設5G網絡。華為發言人說，這是在美國施壓下做出的政治決定。

“我們以前懷抱全球化理想，立誌為全人類服務，”任正非8月在一篇公司內部文章中寫道。“現在我們的理想是什麽？活下來，哪裏有錢就在哪裏賺一點。”

此後，華為被逐出了多數歐洲和北美5G網絡市場。

英文原文：Inside the Secret Prisoner Swap That Splintered the U.S. and China

Inside the Secret Prisoner Swap That Splintered the U.S. and China

Detention of a Chinese executive to stand trial in the U.S. provoked a standoff between global rivals and opened an acrimonious new era

By Drew Hinshaw , Joe Parkinson and Aruna Viswanatha

Updated Oct. 27, 2022 6:53 pm ET

281 RESPONSES

Length(61 minutes)

4:30 a.m., Sept. 25, 2021, Tianjin, China

A pair of prison vans approached the terminal at Tianjin Binhai International Airport carrying two Canadians, blindfolded and disoriented from 1,019 days in captivity.

On the moonlit tarmac, an unmarked U.S. Gulfstream jet waited to take them home. Nearby, the Canadian ambassador paced the carpeted lounge.

Fifteen time zones away, an Air China Boeing 777 stood ready at Vancouver International Airport. Armed officers of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police kept watch in the terminal. A Chinese executive in Manolo Blahnik heels strode past them, carrying a bag with a Carolina Herrera dress shaded the same vibrant red as China’s flag and trailed by an entourage of lawyers, aides and diplomats who called her Madam Meng. She, too, was headed home.

One of the most significant prisoner swaps in recent diplomatic history was under way, after a top-secret negotiation that was three years in the making.

At the Tianjin airport, a Chinese official was on the phone to confirm the woman’s passage through the Vancouver terminal. He then cleared the Canadian prisoners. The Canadian ambassador fumbled for their passports in a yellow envelope and ushered the men to an immigration checkpoint.

A Chinese guard stamped the passports and directed them to the runway.

When Meng Wanzhou was arrested in Canada in 2018, she was chief financial officer of China’s Huawei Technologies Co., a telecommunications giant founded by her father that was poised to win the race to build 5G networks in most of the world’s largest economies. Canadian authorities took Ms. Meng into custody in Vancouver, British Columbia, on behalf of the U.S., which had filed bank-fraud charges against her.

The detention of the 50-year-old celebrity businesswoman, and U.S. efforts to extradite her for trial in New York, transformed her into a national martyr in China and a symbol of America’s growing hostility to its nearest rival.

Meng Wanzhou arriving at a parole office with a security guard in Vancouver, British Columbia, on Dec. 12, 2018.DARRYL DYCK/THE CANADIAN PRESS/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Days later, the two Canadians were seized in retaliation for Ms. Meng’s arrest. Michael Kovrig, 50, was on leave from Canada’s Foreign Ministry to work for the International Crisis Group in Hong Kong. Michael Spavor, 46, ran a business that helped students, athletes and academics visit North Korea. During their incarceration and harsh treatment, the two men were sympathetically shorthanded in news reports and by Western leaders as “the two Michaels.” Both men denied any wrongdoing.

The arrests marked a turning point in the growing power competition between the U.S. and China, helping shift it from mutual wariness to full-blown animosity. Unlike last century’s Cold War between the U.S. and Soviet Union, the prisoner skirmish reflected a U.S.-China battle for control of the international flow of data and, ultimately, primacy in global commerce.

Negotiations to free the prisoners strained relations between China, U.S. and Canada. Each nation navigated its own security concerns and domestic political pressures. The U.S. pressed Chinese leader Xi Jinping to release the two Canadians and cited their arrest as evidence of Beijing’s disregard for the international rules-based order. Mr. Xi saw Ms. Meng’s detention as another underhanded attempt by the U.S. to contain his country’s advance.

Mr. Xi penned more than 100 notes about her case, and he discussed the Michaels with two U.S. presidents. Mr. Xi refused to free them until Ms. Meng was released. Canada was caught in the middle.

Dominic Barton, the Canadian ambassador, spent hundreds of hours at a whiteboard in an embassy safe room charting proposals to get his countrymen released and visiting them in prison. He delivered coded messages in rapid-fire English he knew eavesdropping guards would struggle to understand. Until the final moments, Canada worried that a news leak or a stray remark from a U.S. senator would scuttle the exchange.

This account is based on interviews with current and former U.S., Canadian and Chinese officials, lawyers and prosecutors, former Huawei officials, people familiar with Ms. Meng’s legal team and her staff, as well as current and former diplomats of the three countries. It draws from court documents, real-estate and corporate records, classified diplomatic cables, unpublished photographs and notes of government officials involved in the negotiations.

A spokesman for the Chinese consulate in New York declined to answer questions. A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman has said that Messrs. Kovrig and Spavor were detained and tried in accordance with Chinese law, and their case was unrelated to Ms. Meng’s arrest.

Meng Wanzhou planned to spend only a few hours in Vancouver when she touched down on Dec. 1, 2018. It was one of four cities where she kept a home.

The Huawei CFO checked seven suitcases, packed with presentation material for meetings in four countries, including Mexico. The country’s newly inaugurated president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, was open to Huawei building 5G networks in his country, brushing off U.S. security concerns.

Ms. Meng also booked a stop in Buenos Aires, where she would join her father, Ren Zhengfei, Huawei’s billionaire founder. Mr. Ren had once announced that none of his three children was visionary enough to succeed him. Ms. Meng, who crisscrossed the world representing her father’s empire, seemed determined to prove him wrong.

Around the time Ms. Meng walked into Hong Kong’s international airport, word of her itinerary passed over a secure line to the Palacio Duhau hotel, site of the Group of 20 summit in Buenos Aires. A White House lawyer took the call in a soundproof tent set up in a suite. Afterward, the lawyer woke up John Bolton: Ms. Meng was en route.

Mr. Bolton, then-national security adviser in the Trump administration, knew Ms. Meng’s arrest could disrupt the summit’s marquee event that evening, a dinner between President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Yet Mr. Bolton, a longtime China hawk, felt it was worth the risk. The president didn’t yet know about the plan. White House staffers later debated whether Mr. Bolton had told Mr. Trump or if it hadn’t fully registered with the president.

While Ms. Meng was on her flight to Vancouver, Federal Bureau of Investigation agents passed along details of her travel outfit: a black Abercrombie & Fitch hoodie, dark sweatpants, her hair just past the shoulders.

Federal prosecutors had a sealed indictment against Ms. Meng and Huawei for bank fraud, alleging she had helped disguise the company’s business dealings in Iran. The evidence was in a PowerPoint presentation Ms. Meng showed an executive of HSBC Holdings PLC in the back room of a Hong Kong restaurant in 2013. Huawei, she claimed in her presentation, wasn’t violating U.S. sanctions on Iran.

The charge was narrow, but it would serve a broader national security objective—to help Washington convince U.S. allies Huawei couldn’t be trusted.

Ren Zhengfei, founder and chief executive officer of Huawei Technologies Co., showing a photo of himself with his daughter Meng Wanzhou in May 2019.QILAI SHEN/BLOOMBERG

In a briefing room at the Vancouver airport, six Canadian police officers and border guards studied photos of Ms. Meng. “Seize any electronic devices on MENG to preserve evidence, as there will be a request from FBI,” a Canadian constable scrawled in a spiral notebook.

Ms. Meng’s extradition request had arrived from Washington on a password-protected file that Canadian authorities needed more than a day to unlock. The delay meant Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, also attending the G-20 summit in Buenos Aires, was told of the request only around the time officers took positions at the Vancouver airport’s Gate 65 jet bridge.

Two border guards escorted Ms. Meng to a counter where another guard combed through her luggage. Officers asked questions, among them: Did Huawei ever sell products in Iran? They collected her electronics and demanded her passwords. One by one, they slid her devices into security bags, as the U.S. had requested: a red-cased Huawei phone, a black-and-pink 256-gigabyte thumb drive, a pink-framed MacBook and an iPad with a sticker of Winnie-the-Pooh, a character sometimes used on social media to mock Mr. Xi, China’s leader.

“You have committed fraud, we’re arresting you, and then you will be sent back to the United States,” a police officer told Ms. Meng.

“Me?” she said. “You’re saying I committed fraud in the United States?”

“I don’t have details,” another officer replied. “They have a fraud charge against you regarding your company, uh, Huawei?”

An officer added, apologetically, “We’re only assisting the United States.”

At the police station, Ms. Meng was fingerprinted, and allowed a phone call to the only Chinese-speaking lawyer Huawei could find on short notice, a patent attorney. As the attorney dashed to the station, Ms. Meng began to gasp for air, worrying officers who sped her to a hospital.

Messrs. Trump and Xi were dining on Argentine sirloin, accompanied by a 2014 Malbec. The goal of the dinner was to reach a truce in an escalating U.S.-China trade war. Neither man appeared aware of Ms. Meng’s arrest. Mr. Bolton, seated near Mr. Trump, didn’t mention it.

President Donald Trump, right, national security adviser John Bolton, second from right, and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, far left, having dinner on Dec. 1, 2018, at a G-20 summit in Buenos Aires.KEVIN LAMARQUE/REUTERS

Mr. Xi learned shortly after, according to Chinese government officials, and it struck him as deceptive and an insult. He had just agreed to buy more U.S. food and energy.

Mr. Trump questioned Mr. Bolton days later at a White House Christmas dinner, according to people familiar with the conversation. “Why did you arrest Meng?” the president said. “Don’t you know she’s the Ivanka Trump of China?”

Chinese Foreign Ministry officials briefed Mr. Xi on the arrest when he returned to Beijing on Dec. 6. Ms. Meng, ranked China’s eighth most powerful businesswoman by Forbes magazine, was in custody and under severe distress.

China’s Ministry of Public Security, which had a list of Canadian names, proposed two for him to select. Canada’s ambassador was summoned to a Foreign Ministry office in Beijing and warned China would retaliate.

Two days later, a call came to the Canadian embassy from a man stopped while trying to board a 2 p.m. flight to South Korea from a city in China’s northeast.

China's leader Xi Jinping in Beijing on Dec. 7, 2018.FRED DUFOUR/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES

That night, the embassy got another call, this one about Michael Kovrig. He had been walking in Beijing when he was bundled into a vehicle.

For hours, embassy officials waited to hear from the two men, hoping authorities would release them. Then came the whir of the office fax machine, signaling trouble. Fax was the preferred channel of China’s Foreign Ministry. The machine spat out back-to-back missives announcing the detention of two Canadian citizens suspected of threatening national security.

Canada’s ambassador met with officials in Beijing. They asked for Ms. Meng’s release. “He who ties the knot must untie it,” one of them said.

A month later, Mr. Trudeau cemented his government’s position at a snow-drenched cabinet retreat in Quebec. Arrests of innocent Canadian citizens wouldn’t force Ms. Meng’s release.

Chinese police patrol in front of the Canadian embassy in Beijing on Dec. 14, 2018.GREG BAKER/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES

The prime minister, a liberal leader who in public appearances sometimes appeared boyish, had a harder side. Just before he assumed office, Islamic State militants had abducted two elderly Canadians. Mr. Trudeau later refused to pay a ransom, and they were decapitated.

It was his worst moment as prime minister—and the right decision, Mr. Trudeau said at the cabinet retreat.

When Canada’s ambassador to China said in public remarks that Ms. Meng had a strong case to fight her extradition, Mr. Trudeau fired him.

To free Ms. Meng, Huawei assembled a team of more than a dozen lawyers, including some of the corporate world’s highest-paid. They all agreed she was unfairly trapped in the rivalry between Washington and Beijing.

One of Huawei’s recruits—trial lawyer Reid Weingarten, whose clients had included Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s Lloyd Blankfein and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein—carried a report into a meeting early in 2019 with Justice Department officials. It detailed reasons the defense team believed Ms. Meng would easily win her case.

Elevating a six-year-old PowerPoint presentation to a charge of bank fraud was an overreach the Justice Department would regret, according to Ms. Meng’s lawyers. Some doubted prosecutors had the appetite to go to trial.

Instead, they found little hope for a swift resolution. Federal prosecutors in the case were confident. If Ms. Meng wanted to plead guilty, they were ready to talk. Otherwise, they would see her in court.

The White House had a lot riding on the case. Huawei was on the other side of a contest for control of 5G, the wireless network slated to ferry data to billions of devices worldwide. It was a fight the U.S. didn’t want to lose.

Huawei was offering to deliver its 5G equipment—antennas, base stations and routers—more quickly and less expensively than its Western competitors. The company, a relative newcomer compared with century-old telecom rivals Nokia Corp. and Ericsson AB, had become a world leader.

Ryan Ding, Huawei president of the carrier business group, speaking on Jan. 24, 2019, in Beijing for the launch of new 5G Huawei products.FRED DUFOUR/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES

U.S. national security officials were convinced of a danger other nations thought could be managed—that Huawei was assembling the architecture China could use to conduct worldwide surveillance.

In 2009, U.S. cyberspies had infiltrated the company’s networks. FBI analysts, worried Beijing could use those same networks to spy, alerted their bosses. Defense Department officials urged U.S. telecom companies to steer clear of Huawei. A 2012 congressional investigation concluded China could use Huawei equipment for espionage but didn’t find clear evidence it had.

By the time of the Trump administration, Huawei had built a seemingly insurmountable lead over its rivals. An analysis that circulated among intelligence officials warned Huawei would control 80% of the global market for 5G equipment. National security officials feared that would hand China a surveillance tool with the potential to collect all manner of secrets, from the blueprints of nuclear plants to military plans of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Defense officials and diplomats reached out to America’s closest foreign partners and pushed for Huawei bans. The company dispatched its own lobbyists, lawyers and public-relations firms to say it had never conducted espionage and never would. Huawei challenged the Trump administration to reveal the evidence it claimed to hold, material the U.S. said was secret to protect its sources and methods.

The White House instead offered a slim thread of evidence. In 2017, Beijing had introduced an intelligence law that said “any organization or citizen shall support, assist, and cooperate with state intelligence work.”

Huawei, the Trump administration argued, was bound by law to spy. The company countered that it applied only in China.

U.S. diplomats took printouts of the law to allies around the world, reading it aloud to officials caught up in what many saw as a feud between superpowers. The U.K., South Korea, Germany, Italy, Mexico and Canada balked at pressure to ban the company. Some were baffled by the escalating campaign.

Huawei said it was a Chinese success story whose founder was motivated not by rivalry with America but admiration for it.

Mr. Ren, a former army engineer, started out in 1987 selling telecom switches from an apartment in Shenzhen, a small city overshadowed by neighboring Hong Kong. In his telling, a 1993 Greyhound bus trip across the U.S. stirred grand ambitions.

In Dallas, Mr. Ren recalled visiting the 60,000-acre headquarters of Texas Instruments Inc. Employees there clocked overtime to take him on a daylong tour of research facilities, revealing technical details of new high-speed devices.

At National Semiconductor in California, at the time one of the world’s leading chip makers, he saw an exhibition of optical devices and 3G network switching technologies.

Mr. Ren hired a taxi to drive around the Silicon Valley research facility of International Business Machines Corp. to calculate how many square kilometers it encompassed. He felt “the United States will prosper forever,” he recalled in a blog post.

A quarter-century later, his company was a leader in artificial-intelligence research and had a smartphone brand that sold more units than Apple Inc. Huawei opened a 4-square-mile campus outside Shenzhen that featured Swiss-style trams zipping past replicas of European castles and landmarks of Paris and Verona, Italy, that housed Huawei offices and research labs.

A replica of Germany's Heidelberg Castle built at Huawei's campus outside Shenzhen, China.KEVIN FRAYER/GETTY IMAGES

As the company grew, it was stalked by allegations—from former employees, rival corporations and U.S. officials—that its advance relied on deceit. Huawei denied the allegations and said it was committed to complying with laws in global markets. The company settled lawsuits with competitors that accused it of stealing trade secrets, among them Cisco Systems Inc. and Quintel Technology Ltd.

Paperwork for search warrants and interview notes piled up in a Justice Department office in New York. Some companies were afraid China would retaliate if they took Huawei to court, feeding a view at the department that Huawei’s competitive advantage was impunity.

A bank ended up providing investigators with evidence for the government’s first case, which originated in the Brooklyn, N.Y., office.

In 2013, HSBC had asked Huawei to explain a news report claiming it secretly owned and operated a company that sold its products in Iran. Afterward, Ms. Meng then told the HSBC executive in the Hong Kong restaurant that Huawei adhered to U.S. sanctions.

Months after the meeting, border agents searching Ms. Meng’s electronics during a transit through John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York recovered a text file of her talking points concerning Iran. It had been deleted but not erased from the hard drive.

The file became useful when HSBC, on the hook for its own legal missteps, had to give federal prosecutors a dossier on its business with Huawei, including what Ms. Meng had said about her company’s dealings in Iran.

Federal investigators assigned a code name to keep the probe secret. HSBC and other banks cooperating with the Justice Department feared for the safety of their executives in China, as well as business ties there.

Prosecutors in April 2017 served Huawei with a subpoena to answer questions about whether it conducted business in sanctioned countries, and company executives subsequently halted travel to the U.S.

In August 2018, prosecutors readied an indictment against Huawei and Ms. Meng. They kept it under seal until she landed in a country within their reach.

Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei working in his office at the company's campus outside Shenzhen, China, on Aug. 20, 2019.NG HAN GUAN/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Ms. Meng’s jail in Vancouver was a $4.2 million house facing the North Shore Mountains. It was the smaller of her two homes in the city.

U.S. officials had hoped Canada would keep Ms. Meng behind bars until her extradition. The billionaire’s daughter, who had been issued at least seven passports, was a flight risk, prosecutors argued during her December 2018 bail hearing.

Instead, a judge had granted her bail, set at 10 million Canadian dollars, equivalent to $7.5 million, and imposed a curfew from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. Otherwise, she was free to roam. A GPS monitor on her ankle kept Ms. Meng tethered to authorities.

Later, she received court permission to move, for security reasons, to a $12.3 million, seven-bedroom villa, two doors from the home of the U.S. consul general. Mr. Ren dispatched a team of Huawei employees to help with public relations and his daughter’s defense.

A vice president from the Brazil office and a China-based legal director were the first to arrive. They stayed in a villa nearby. A PR manager from Huawei’s headquarters followed, and he began holding impromptu news conferences on the courthouse steps, irritating Ms. Meng and her legal advisers. They worried his public statements could jeopardize the case, but Mr. Ren overruled their objections.

By April, Huawei had a more senior team in place, including Mr. Ren’s translator and personal assistant, who served as a liaison.

The former head sales executive in Europe directed Ms. Meng’s daily Zumba classes and yoga workouts. Personal chefs prepared health-conscious meals. A florist arranged bouquets for the dining table. Mr. Ren tried to prod his daughter into pursuing a Ph.D. while she waited for her release.

Meng Wanzhou leaving her house to attend a court hearing in Vancouver, British Columbia, on Oct. 29, 2020.DARRYL DYCK/BLOOMBERG NEWS

The cast of helpers and aides was known as Sabrina’s Team, after one of the English-language names she used.

When Ms. Meng stepped out, a set of court-appointed bodyguards, stationed in a tent pitched on the property, trailed her. Fashion boutiques accommodated her private shopping tours. She dined with friends at the Dynasty Seafood restaurant, where the city’s Chinese elite enjoyed dim sum and city views.

Huawei had built a foothold in Canada’s telecom market, including a 5G research center. Shortly after Ms. Meng’s arrest, the company ramped up its advertising around the city, draping bus stops, billboards and shopping malls in banners, many in Chinese, featuring its latest slogan—Huawei: a higher intelligence.

On March 6, 2019, three months after her arrest, bodyguards and TV cameras followed Ms. Meng into court for her extradition hearing.

On the courthouse steps, protesters opposing Beijing’s crackdown in Hong Kong set fire to a Chinese flag. Some held placards scrawled in all caps, “EXTRADITE MENG!”

The court hearing lasted just a few minutes, marking the start of a protracted legal battle. Each time Ms. Meng went to court, she passed a Chinese nurse, a member of China’s Uyghur minority, holding pictures of Messrs. Kovrig and Spavor, the two Michaels, to protest their detention.

In the northeastern city of Dandong, on the North Korea border, Michael Spavor lived with some 20 other inmates in Cell 315. At night, they slept side by side like sardines. The overflowing compound was sweltering on hot days and cold after dark. Meals were meager and unchanging: cabbage, eggs and rice.

Mr. Spavor, a Calgary native, traveled to South Korea at age 21 and taught English. He became fascinated with the authoritarian state of North Korea and began arranging tours. In 2013 and 2014, he planned three trips for Dennis Rodman, the former Chicago Bulls basketball star who had his own interest in the secretive country and its leader, Kim Jong Un.

Mr. Spavor impressed party guests in South Korea with his pitch-perfect North Korean accent.

Dennis Rodman, left, Michael Spavor, third from left, and North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, right, in January 2014 in Pyongyang, North Korea.WANG ZHAO/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES

The two Michaels had met once at a dinner in Beijing. The expatriates chatted about China, North Korea and relations between the two countries.

Mr. Kovrig had gone to Budapest after college in the mid-1990s, joining a wave of Westerners who flooded into once-closed Central European countries. He worked as a reporter and sang in a punk band before returning home to join Canada’s diplomatic service.

Fluorescent lights glowed 24 hours a day in Mr. Kovrig’s windowless cell at Beijing’s No. 1 Detention Center. For almost six months, he was confined without a whiff of fresh air. To break the monotony, he devised a daily workout of push-ups, six-minute planks and 7,000 steps around the tiny space.

Prison authorities spent the first months of Mr. Kovrig’s incarceration conducting interrogations that stretched to 10 hours. Over and over, they questioned his work at the Canadian embassy in Beijing.

In June 2019, after more than 150 days in prison, Mr. Kovrig was allowed to send a batch of letters home. The embassy scanned the stack of handwritten notes and emailed them to his wife in Toronto.

Vina Nadjibulla, a 44-year-old international security analyst, met Mr. Kovrig while they were studying international relations at Columbia University in 2001. She was raised in wartime Kabul, the daughter of a Soviet Jew and an Afghan Muslim, and had found her calling in conflict prevention at the United Nations. Mr. Kovrig proposed to her in the U.N. Assembly Hall.

Vina Nadjibulla and Michael Kovrig in an undated photo before his arrest in China.FAMILY PHOTO/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES

He entered Canada’s foreign service, and she worked on the reconstruction of postwar Sierra Leone. The couple had separated by the time of Mr. Kovrig’s arrest. But each had promised to help the other if they were ever kidnapped during their work abroad.

Ms. Nadjibulla put her life on hold, flying between Toronto, Washington and Ottawa to petition officials who could help free Mr. Kovrig. In June, Mr. Trudeau invited Ms. Nadjibulla to his office, and she read from her husband’s letters to his family.

“If there is one faint silver lining to this hell, it’s this: trauma carved caverns of psychological pain through my mind,” one letter said. “I find myself filling those gulfs with a love for you and for life that is vast, deep and more profound and comforting than what I’ve ever experienced.”

“Come sit with me and walk with me in spirit,” Mr. Kovrig wrote. “Help me feel less isolated. Let me share the love I have for you and we’ll get through this together.”

About a week later, Mr. Trudeau arrived in Osaka, Japan, for the G-20 summit. He set out to lobby the one person who could release his two countrymen—Mr. Xi, the most powerful Chinese leader since Mao Zedong.

In meetings with Western leaders, Mr. Xi seldom joked and rarely smiled. He usually began with a monologue of talking points almost identical to his public statements. He so resolutely stuck to scripted remarks that his interpreter simply read aloud from a prepared English text. When finished, Mr. Xi would ask, “Don’t you agree?”

White House officials analyzing transcripts from closed-door talks often struggled to understand whether Mr. Xi had said anything of substance beyond his prepared statements.

In their conversations, Mr. Trump would try six or seven ways of bluntly asking a specific question, and Mr. Xi would repeat the same vague responses.

Other world leaders traded small talk and called each other by their first names—Donald, Angela, Vladimir. Even behind closed doors, Mr. Xi stuck to “Mr. President” or “Madam Prime Minister” and other honorifics.

Throughout the first half of 2019, Mr. Trudeau had failed to get an audience with Mr. Xi. His diplomats in China were frozen out. The Chinese reply to Mr. Trudeau was frustrating: It would breach protocol for Mr. Xi, China’s head of state, to speak with Mr. Trudeau, merely the head of government of Canada, whose head of state was Queen Elizabeth II.

Beijing expressed itself through trade restrictions. China blocked shipments of Canadian canola oil at its ports. In May, it barred pork from two of Canada’s top slaughterhouses. Three days ahead of the G-20 summit, it stopped all Canadian meat from entering China.

Mr. Trudeau asked Mr. Trump to speak up for Messrs. Kovrig and Spavor when the U.S. president met with the Chinese leader at the summit in Osaka.

At their meeting, Mr. Trump handed Mr. Xi a sheet of paper that listed the names of Americans being held in China. The names, written in Chinese and English, also included Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig.

“It would be a great gesture,” Mr. Trump said with a stroke of flattery, if China could help these people get home.

Scanning the names, Mr. Xi pointedly noted that the last time the two leaders had met was the day of Ms. Meng’s arrest.

Mr. Trudeau got his opening by chance. Chile was a guest at the G-20 meeting, but its representative didn’t attend a scheduled assembly. That left Canada seated alphabetically between China and Brazil—and Mr. Xi seated to the right of Mr. Trudeau.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping, left, seated next to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the G-20 summit in Osaka, Japan, on June 29, 2019.KAZUHIRO NOGI/PRESS POOL/REUTERS

The Canadian prime minister passed a note, handwritten in Chinese, to Mr. Xi. “We have to communicate,” it said. Mr. Trudeau proposed they select two confidants to begin backchannel talks.

The two men stepped to the side of a conference floor, exchanged pleasantries through a translator and clasped hands.

Days later, Dominic Barton, the former global managing partner of consulting firm McKinsey & Co., carried a thin folder of notes into the gated Diaoyutai state guesthouse in Beijing. His meeting was unofficial and secret. He told his secretary he was on vacation.

The 60-year-old Canadian had risen in the slipstream of China’s economic miracle, and through more than a decade living and working in the country had ties with Chinese entrepreneurs, executives and party leaders. He had written two books on China and taught at Tsinghua University in Beijing.

Mr. Barton wasn’t a diplomat. Yet Mr. Trudeau believed he could break the diplomatic logjam and bring home the two Michaels.

An adviser had informed the prime minister that there was a 40% chance Mr. Barton’s first meeting with Chinese officials would go well, a 40% chance it would go well enough for a second visit and a 20% chance it would go sour.

The silver-haired executive smiled at a pair of Foreign Ministry officials when he and the adviser entered the meeting room. An elderly Communist Party official began reading from a stack of pages, pausing with dramatic effect for the translator to catch up.

Mr. Barton interrupted, and the ministry official, appointed by Mr. Xi, looked up and flipped back to the first page. Then he began rereading from the beginning. For three hours, the official read from an invective-laced script, circling back to the top each time Mr. Barton protested.

Calling for a timeout, Mr. Barton stepped into the hallway. “I think we’re in the 5%,” the adviser said, acknowledging the worse-than-expected outcome.

Dominic Barton, Canada's then-ambassador to China, at a 2020 forum in Beijing.VCG/GETTY IMAGES

Mr. Barton held his tongue through the last hour of hectoring. The Chinese official focused on Section 23(3) of Canada’s 1999 Extradition Act, which gave the country’s justice minister authority to cancel an extradition.

At the end of the meeting, Mr. Barton asked if China’s Foreign Ministry would attend a second meeting in Ottawa. No, the official said. But the Canadians were welcome to return to Beijing.

Weeks later, Mr. Barton was named Canada’s ambassador to China. His first test was a meeting with Mr. Xi in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People. The ambassador delivered a short speech in his halting Mandarin during an exchange that lasted barely a minute.

“My mission here is to resolve this issue,” Mr. Barton said. “I want to get Madam Meng and our people home.”

“You got a lot of work to do,” Mr. Wang said, slapping Mr. Barton’s back. “You better exercise hard!”

Shortly after, Mr. Barton made his first visit to a Chinese prison. Guards escorted him past an interrogation room holding a metal chair with straps.

The two men met in a reception room, and they were told not to discuss Mr. Spavor’s case. Mr. Barton leaned across a table toward the handcuffed prisoner. “I’m going to talk to you very fast to be able to smuggle some stuff in about the case,” he said. “Here are the four things I want to discuss. But first, is there anything you want to put on the agenda?”

Mr. Spavor, struggling with sleep, looked numb. “How long will this go on?” he said. “Every day I wake up, and it’s the same.”

Mr. Barton said he didn’t know. He spoke rapidly about efforts to free him and of the health of Mr. Spavor’s father in Calgary, who had fallen seriously ill.

Prison gates frame a view in August 2021 of the Dandong detention center in China, where Michael Spavor was held.NOEL CELIS/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES

When guards caught mention of Ms. Meng, they interrupted, and Mr. Barton switched subjects before returning to the case.

Mr. Barton also went to the Beijing prison to see Mr. Kovrig, who was livid and gesturing at guards he said were abusive. They had taken away his glasses, citing rules against metal objects.

“Take their numbers!” he said, his 6-foot-4 frame stretching out of his too-small prison uniform. “Write them down!”

Messrs. Kovrig and Spavor were headed toward their second Christmas behind bars when NATO leaders mingled at a Dec. 3, 2019, Champagne reception in Buckingham Palace.

It was hosted in the Green Drawing Room, a long, crimson-carpeted hallway decorated with silk wallpaper and gold-framed pictures of England’s monarchs. Kate Middleton and Prince William filtered through the crowd of NATO officials charged with defending the West. Mr. Trudeau spoke privately with the queen.

The prime minister’s chief foreign policy adviser, David Morrison, grabbed a word with White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney. Earlier in the day, the prime minister had told Mr. Trump about the ordeal the two Michaels were enduring. The U.S. agreed to a meeting in Washington, an opening Canada welcomed.

The White House had already resumed prisoner-exchange talks with Beijing. National security adviser Robert O’Brien, who followed Mr. Bolton, had recently been in Bangkok for a meeting of Asian leaders.

He surprised China’s premier, Li Keqiang, at the meeting with books for the two Canadian prisoners: “Unbroken,” Laura Hillenbrand’s profile of World War II prisoner Louis Zamperini, for Mr. Kovrig, a C.S. Lewis novel for Mr. Spavor and a Bible for each. The books contained handwritten notes reassuring the two captives that the world knew of their suffering.

As Mr. O’Brien passed on the books, he also relayed a diplomatic message: Washington wanted to talk.

Britain's Queen Elizabeth II and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaking at Buckingham Palace during a Dec. 3, 2019, reception for leaders of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.YUKI MOK/PRESS POOL/REUTERS

Days later, China’s deputy chief of mission in Washington met discreetly with National Security Council staff at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next to the White House. Washington had no right to demand the Canadians’ release, the Chinese delegate said: “This is not a U.S. matter.”

Beijing, however, was willing to consider another exchange first, to build trust. The U.S. could accelerate the deportation of Bank of China Ltd. manager Xu Guojun, who was sought by Chinese authorities for corruption-related charges.

In return, the Americans wanted David Lin, a Taiwanese-American pastor imprisoned for life after proselytizing in China, and Kai Li, a Chinese-American businessman from Long Island, N.Y., who was serving 10 years for espionage.

A few days before Christmas, a Canadian delegation met in Mr. Mulvaney’s office at the White House, where administration officials were preoccupied with Mr. Trump’s first impeachment hearings.

Canada’s acting ambassador to Washington, Kirsten Hillman, and Messrs. Barton and Morrison squeezed next to John Demers, the Justice Department’s assistant attorney general for national security, and Matt Pottinger, deputy national security adviser. The sooner Ms. Meng was extradited, Mr. Pottinger said, the sooner the two Michaels could be freed.

The Canadian delegation said Ms. Meng’s appeal could last years and would almost certainly end in a plea deal. If so, they said, the sooner the U.S. agreed to a plea deal, the better for Messrs. Kovrig and Spavor.

After several videoconference calls through the spring of 2020, Mr. Demers told the Canadian diplomats that the Justice Department was considering a deferred prosecution agreement: Prosecutors wouldn’t move forward with charges if Ms. Meng pledged not to commit other federal crimes.

The sticking point was that Ms. Meng would have to admit wrongdoing. Her lawyers said she would never agree because she had done nothing wrong.

Mr. Barton and his closest aides in Beijing frequently worked in a room below the Canadian embassy that had metal-coated walls to repel electronic surveillance. It was named the Salle de Deux Innocents—the Room of Two Innocents—for a travelogue written by former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau after he hitchhiked with a friend across Mao-era China.

In meetings, Mr. Barton and the aides toggled through flipboard pages with names of officials they hoped could persuade China to see the logic of settling Ms. Meng’s case with the Justice Department.

Months before her arrest, the two countries had pursued a free-trade agreement. Now, the invitations to state functions slowed to a trickle. Mr. Barton, known for his ability to strike deals in China, couldn’t get calls returned, even from longtime acquaintances. “We have come to expect this from the U.S., but we have a 50-year relationship with you,” one official said.

The mission wasn’t just faltering, Mr. Barton confided to a colleague. It was lurching toward humiliation.

In spring 2020, Mr. Barton hoped for better luck with Mr. Ren, the Huawei founder. He secured an appointment at the company’s Shenzhen headquarters, where he found Mr. Ren upbeat about his daughter’s prospects.

Madam Meng would be home soon, Mr. Ren said through his translator. Her lawyers had many grounds to appeal her extradition, and they believed one would stick. “I trust the Canadian legal system will do the right thing,” he said.

Ms. Meng, her legal team and Huawei were so confident of a win that they had her bags packed and chartered the 787th Boeing 787 ever made, a commemorative Dreamliner jet that would bring her home from Vancouver.

Days before Ms. Meng’s May 27, 2020, court hearing, her assistants staged a rehearsal for a planned photo on the steps of British Columbia’s Supreme Court building. Huawei colleagues and household staff joined Ms. Meng, flashing victory signs in front of an imagined crowd of supporters.

On the morning of the hearing, they were met instead by a jeering crowd hoisting signs: “Boycott Huawei” and “Free Canadians Michael Kovrig, Michael Spavor.”

Meng Wanzhou leaving court after an extradition hearing in Vancouver, British Columbia, on May 27, 2020.DARRYL DYCK/BLOOMBERG NEWS

In the courtroom, Ms. Meng’s lawyers told the judge that the U.S. extradition request was faulty. Under Canadian law, the extradition could proceed only if the offense was a crime in both Canada and the U.S.

Although U.S. prosecutors had charged Ms. Meng with bank fraud, the lawyers said, the case was in fact about U.S. sanctions on Iran, and Canada had no such sanctions. The judge declined the appeal.

Vina Nadjibulla, Mr. Kovrig’s wife, was watching the judgment and taking notes. She had spent hundreds of hours following the case. After the judge’s decision, she went to Washington to brief officials.

Each month, she sent Mr. Kovrig a letter with regards from friends. She included such cryptic messages as, “I was walking in our old stomping grounds,” meaning she had been lobbying officials at the U.N.

Ms. Nadjibulla sent nutritional and fitness advice. Mr. Kovrig began sprinkling milk powder and sesame powder from the prison canteen on meals for a protein boost; he tried pistol squats to strengthen his core. His life was so closed he didn’t understand that a pandemic was disrupting the world.

Mr. Kovrig read 20 to 30 books a month—on philosophy and geopolitics, classics from Tolstoy to Kafka and Nelson Mandela’s prison autobiography, “The Long Walk to Freedom.” He and Mr. Spavor read copies of Viktor Frankl’s meditation on life in Auschwitz, “Man’s Search for Meaning.”

Mr. Spavor shared his books with cellmates, who were rarely allowed them. In return, they helped him learn to write Chinese characters.

Mr. Kovrig’s letters home included book reviews, and Ms. Nadjibulla forwarded his recommendations to an informal book club of friends and colleagues in the U.S., Canada and Asia.

After months of requests, Chinese prison guards allowed Mr. Kovrig to call his family. Ms. Nadjibulla answered.

In the summer of 2020, as the Covid-19 pandemic spread worldwide, FBI agents arrested five academic researchers, most of them charged with lying on visa applications. Trump administration officials believed the students were exploiting U.S. research to advance China’s military. All pleaded not guilty.

The arrests prompted China to resuscitate secret prisoner-swap discussions with the U.S., which had gone silent in the pandemic. Beijing wanted its researchers back. Washington wanted its Americans—and the two Michaels.

A videoconference linked officials from the National Security Council, State Department and Justice Department with Chinese Foreign Ministry diplomats and the Ministry of Public Security. The U.S. insisted on using Microsoft Teams rather than Chinese software for the meeting.

“They are students,” a Chinese Foreign Ministry official said. “They are just studying.”

The U.S. offered to return the researchers, as well as speed up the deportation of Xu Guojun, the banker sought by China on corruption charges.

In return, the Americans wanted Kai Li, the businessman, and David Lin, the pastor, as well as Victor Liu and Cynthia Liu, American siblings blocked from leaving China since 2018. The U.S. also asked China to allow the exit of another three U.S. citizens, including two children.

The proposed exchange—seven Chinese for seven Americans, plus the two Canadians—would make it one of the largest prisoner swaps since the Cold War.

Customers looking at Huawei smartphones in 2020 at the company's flagship store in Shanghai.AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES

When U.S. officials raised the names of Messrs. Kovrig and Spavor, a Ministry of Public Security official said, “The Chinese people would not allow the Michaels to go home unless Madam Meng does.”

A Justice Department official encouraged the Chinese officials to talk with Ms. Meng’s lawyers about accepting the offer from federal prosecutors: freedom in exchange for an admission of wrongdoing. Persuade her to sign, the U.S. official said.

The talks fizzled. The U.S. wouldn’t bring home the Americans without the two Canadians. Ms. Meng wasn’t interested in the prosecutors’ offer.

The Chinese executive told her lawyers she would never admit wrongdoing. She was willing to remain in Vancouver for years, if necessary, while her legal team fought the U.S. extradition. The company’s reputation was at stake.

That summer, Huawei swept past Samsung Electronics Co. to become the world’s top smartphone maker. As chief financial officer, Ms. Meng had to protect the empire her father had built.

Mr. Trump, who began referring to Huawei as “Spyway,” signed off on new export restrictions in 2020 that blocked the company from buying computer chips produced with U.S. tools. The restrictions extended to manufacturers using American technology worldwide. Huawei started to run low on chips it needed to churn out smartphones, which made up around half its revenue.

Huawei also lost the license to load Google software on its phones and tablets. As sales plunged, Huawei considered shifting into electric cars.

Canada discussed the arrest of Messrs. Kovrig and Spavor at NATO counterintelligence briefings. Western leaders who spoke with Mr. Trudeau heard about the harrowing prison conditions endured by the two Michaels. Many of the details came from Ms. Nadjibulla.

One by one, the world’s wealthiest countries gravitated toward the U.S. position and cut ties with Huawei.

In July 2020, the U.K. announced it would ban the company from its networks by 2027. Two weeks later, France said it would stop renewing licenses for Huawei 5G equipment, effectively barring the company. By October, the U.K. Parliament’s defense committee said it would accelerate the Huawei ban.

Huawei’s head of public affairs in North America, Vincent Peng, bounced between the U.S., Canada and China, scouting for lobbyists to reach lawmakers and diplomats to help free Ms. Meng.

Mr. Trump lost the 2020 presidential election in November, and as the clock ticked down to a new administration, Mr. Peng called Mr. Barton a few days before Christmas. He said Huawei was going to try its luck with Joe Biden.

President Joe Biden and Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaking after a bilateral meeting held via video on Feb. 23, 2021.PETE MAROVICH/CNP/ZUMA PRESS

Mr. Biden’s first bilateral meeting as president was with Canada on Feb. 23, 2021. The first item on Mr. Trudeau’s meeting agenda was the release of Messrs. Kovrig and Spavor. “These two guys are in prison,” the prime minister said. “They are there because we are living up to our commitments to you….We need to get them out.”

“I will not interfere with the judicial process,” Mr. Biden replied. “Everything else, I am here for you.”

Ms. Meng’s detention was one area where Mr. Xi hoped he could reset U.S.-China relations under the new president. Yet from all appearances, the relationship remained volatile.

At a March 2021 meeting in Alaska, China’s top diplomat, Yang Jiechi, publicly accused the U.S. of persuading other countries to attack China. In private, Secretary of State Antony Blinken brought up the two Michaels, saying serious countries don’t kidnap people to use as bargaining chips.

That month, Messrs. Kovrig and Spavor were tried for espionage in closed-door hearings. Verdicts and sentences wouldn’t be announced until later.

As Mr. Biden took office, the Chinese leader came to see the case as an obstacle to restoring U.S.-China ties under the new administration. Mr. Xi felt his country had demonstrated sufficient resolve against Western provocation.

He tapped Xie Feng, a vice foreign minister, to bring the prisoner standoff to an end. Mr. Xi by then had sent more than 100 handwritten notes to underlings about Ms. Meng’s case.

In July 2021, the Justice Department dropped charges against the five Chinese researchers, a decision that lowered tensions between the two countries. Days later, Mr. Xie joined a gathering of senior U.S. and Chinese officials in Tianjin, the first such meeting in more than three months.

Between testy exchanges about Covid-19 and human rights, Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman said her department wouldn’t block Ms. Meng’s return home if she settled with U.S. prosecutors.

Two weeks after the Tianjin meeting, Mr. Barton learned that Mr. Spavor would be sentenced in Dandong. The ambassador’s team invited diplomats from allied countries to gather at the courthouse. If Canada couldn’t stop the sentencing, it wanted the world as a witness.

Mr. Barton was joined by diplomats from the U.S., Japan, Germany, Australia and New Zealand. In the courtroom, Mr. Barton opened a video call to the Canadian embassy in Beijing and narrated the proceedings.

Dominic Barton speaking via videocall from Dandong, China, to a gathering of diplomats in Beijing about the sentencing of Michael Spavor on Aug. 11, 2021.ROMAN PILIPEY/EPA/SHUTTERSTOCK

The judge sentenced Mr. Spavor to an 11-year term for espionage, based on the number of incriminating photos authorities claimed they found on his phone. Mr. Barton called Mr. Spavor’s family and then spoke to reporters.

“Our collective presence and voice sends a strong signal to China and the Chinese government that all the eyes of the world are watching,” the ambassador said.

A month later, Mr. Barton was summoned to the U.S. Embassy safe room to read transcripts of a call between Messrs. Biden and Xi. The two leaders had again pressed each other to release the prisoners.

Mr. Barton got an unexpected call while he was wrapping up a visit to an organization serving children with special needs in Qinghai, one of China’s poorest provinces. An aide handed him a phone and said, “Xie Feng wants to speak to you now!” Mr. Barton stepped into a blue van.

Mr. Xie spoke through a translator and quizzed Mr. Barton over details for completing the deferred prosecution agreement with Ms. Meng. The snag was how the U.S. would characterize her wrongdoing. Mr. Barton relayed some potential wording, and Mr. Xie cut him off, breaking into English.

Ms. Meng wouldn’t explicitly admit to lying—only that the statements she had made to HSBC were “untrue.”

Mr. Barton plugged in a phone charger and called off his next visit. He kept Mr. Xie on the phone to go over logistics of a deal that could easily collapse. It all hinged on one overriding question: Would Xi Jinping approve?

The decision arrived in a handwritten note from the General Office of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party. Mr. Xi gave his consent.

On the evening of Sept. 19, one of Ms. Meng’s new lawyers emailed a statement of facts to the Justice Department. The Huawei executive would concede that what she told the HSBC banker in 2013 was untrue.

Five days later, Ms. Meng joined a Brooklyn, N.Y., court hearing in a videoconference call from Vancouver. She pleaded not guilty to the indictment and accepted the deferred prosecution agreement.

The same day, Mr. Barton arrived for a prison visit with Mr. Kovrig. He learned he would speak to the two Michaels in video calls. Mr. Spavor had already arrived in Beijing by train.

“You will have the honor of telling them they’re going home,” a security official told Mr. Barton.

Messrs. Kovrig and Spavor appeared on the calls, one after the other. Mr. Barton tried to keep his voice from breaking in his call to Mr. Spavor.

Nervous that any snag could derail the prisoner exchange, only a few select diplomats in Canada’s Beijing embassy knew what was afoot. Embassy staff worked out travel arrangements. A diplomat’s wife volunteered to bake peanut-butter cookies for the trip home.

In Vancouver, Ms. Meng and her lawyers had a 4 p.m. deadline on Sept. 24 to complete paperwork for the agreement with the Justice Department.

After the U.S. case was done, Canada invoked Section 23(3), the article allowing the government to terminate Ms. Meng’s custody.

In China, Messrs. Spavor and Kovrig, handcuffed and blindfolded, arrived at the Tianjin airport. Mr. Barton waited in the VIP lounge.

As the Canadians cleared the immigration checkpoint in China, officers at the Vancouver airport handed Ms. Meng her own freshly stamped passport. She hugged a lawyer and bid farewell to Chinese consular officers.

Ms. Meng learned during her flight that Messrs. Kovrig and Spavor had also been freed.

Meng Wanzhou waving to a crowd after her arrival in Shenzhen, China, on Sept. 25, 2021.JIN LIQANG/XINHUA/ZUMA PRESS

After a nighttime landing, Ms. Meng descended the airplane stairs at Shenzhen Bao’an International Airport. She wore a Chinese flag pinned to her red Carolina Herrera dress and waved to a waiting crowd. Projectors flashed her name across skyscrapers in Shenzhen.

From a red carpet placed on the tarmac for her arrival, Ms. Meng raised her hands in victory and thanked one person, Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

Messrs. Kovrig and Spavor touched down in Anchorage, Alaska. On the rain-washed runway, Mr. Kovrig bent to kiss the ground. Mr. Spavor joked they should hold their kisses until they reached Canada.

Mr. Trudeau and a small entourage greeted their return in Calgary, Mr. Spavor’s hometown. They were welcomed with to-go cups of Tim Hortons coffee.

Mr. Kovrig flew on to Toronto. Ms. Nadjibulla met him there, and they embraced beside a Royal Canadian Air Force jet.

Michael Kovrig embracing his wife, Vina Nadjibulla, after arriving in Toronto on Sept. 25, 2021.FRANK GUNN/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Once home, Mr. Spavor found it hard to sleep in his own bed, having grown accustomed to contorting himself in a cell beside dozens of inmates. He remains in Canada and regularly speaks by phone with Mr. Barton.

Mr. Kovrig and Ms. Nadjibulla spent weeks together writing a book on the ordeal during her stays in Spain, Canada and the Netherlands. They hope the book offers a road map for other prisoners and their families. Despite their divorce plans, they are in some ways closer now than ever, friends said.

Mr. Barton resigned his post as ambassador three months after the two Michaels returned home. He became chairman of Rio Tinto PLC, the Anglo-Australian mining conglomerate. China, long locked in a trade dispute with Australia, agreed last month to develop a $2 billion iron-ore project with his new company.

Ms. Meng was recently promoted to a six-month rotation as Huawei’s chairwoman. She no longer sets foot in Western countries.

The U.S. and Canada persuaded 66 other countries to sign a declaration against arbitrary detention to forestall similar international disputes.

The resurgence of what the U.S. has called hostage diplomacy—by China but also Iran, Venezuela, North Korea and Turkey—has reached such proportions that Mr. Biden this summer declared it a national emergency. He signed an executive order authorizing the U.S. to impose sanctions on anyone involved in wrongfully detaining Americans abroad.

Huawei has pleaded not guilty to the bank-fraud and other charges in the U.S. case. On Monday, prosecutors unsealed charges against two Chinese intelligence officers accused of trying to bribe a U.S. law-enforcement employee for confidential information about what people familiar with the case said was the Huawei investigation.

Canada in May declared Huawei a national security risk and banned it from building 5G networks in the country. It was a political decision, a Huawei spokesman said, resulting from U.S. pressure.

“We used to embrace the ideal of globalization and aspire to serve all mankind,” Mr. Ren wrote in an August company memo. “What is our ideal now? Survive and earn some money wherever we can.”

The company has since been expelled from most European and North American 5G networks.

Endnotes

A pair of prison vans approached…the description of the airport exchange in China and Canada came from the recollections of people involved in the exchange, others monitoring events, as well as unpublished photos and airport records.

Fifteen time zones away…Wall Street Journal reporter and photographer present.

Days later, the two Canadians were seized…Prior reporting, friends and former colleagues who worked with Messrs. Kovrig and Spavor.

First to fall

Meng Wanzhou planned to spend only a few hours…court testimony and flight information disclosed in extradition proceedings, closed-circuit TV images and contemporaneous notes from Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

Around the time Ms. Meng walked…senior U.S. administration and National Security Council officials and senior Canadian officials at the G-20 summit.

While Ms. Meng was on her flight…an email to Canadian police that was filed with the Supreme Court of British Columbia; testimony from RCMP officers.

In a briefing room at the Vancouver airport…RCMP officers’ notes made public during the extradition proceedings.

“Seize any electronic devices”... copies of officers’ notes submitted during extradition hearings.

Two border guards escorted Ms. Meng…notes and transcripts from Ms. Meng’s guards, photos of the devices shown in extradition hearings.

Ms. Meng began to gasp for air…court documents, former Huawei official and a member of Ms. Meng’s staff.

Chinese foreign ministry officials briefed Mr. Xi…senior Chinese officials and Chinese state news reports.

Two days later, a call came…Canadian officials and people familiar with the situation.

A month later, Mr. Trudeau cemented his government’s position…Canadian officials present.

In 2009, U.S. cyberspies had infiltrated…prior Journal reporting and former U.S. officials.

An analysis that circulated among intelligence officials…National Security Council staff.

U.S. diplomats took printouts of the law to allies…State Department officials.

The file became useful when HSBC…court documents and people familiar with the investigation.

Ms. Meng’s jail in Vancouver was a $4.2 million house…property records, Canadian officials and a 2018 affidavit Ms. Meng filed in court.

Ms. Meng, who had at least seven passports…court documents and the Hong Kong Companies Registry.

Mr. Ren dispatched a team of Huawei employees…advisers to Ms. Meng and other people close to her.

Mr. Spavor, a Calgary native, had traveled to South Korea…Mr. Spavor’s friends and former colleagues.

Fluorescent lights glowed 24 hours a day…Mr. Kovrig’s friends and family, as well as prison letters home.

Lucky break

At their meeting, Mr. Trump handed Mr. Xi…people present and others familiar with the exchange.

Dominic Barton, the former chief executive of…Canadian officials familiar with the meeting.

The silver-haired executive smiled…Canadian officials and people familiar with the situation.

“You have arrested Madam Meng”…Canadian officials and people familiar with the situation.

His first test was a meeting with Mr. Xi…Canadian officials familiar with the exchange.

Shortly after, Mr. Barton made his first visit…people familiar with the meetings.

In his letters, Mr. Kovrig had called…letters published in Canadian media, and people familiar with the letters.

Mr. Barton and his closest aides in Beijing gathered…current and former officials familiar with the meetings.

Madam Meng would be home soon…current and former officials familiar with the meetings.

In the summer of 2020, as the Covid-19 pandemic spread…criminal complaints and officials involved in the discussions.

The Chinese executive told her lawyers she would never…people familiar with the discussions.

Huawei’s chief public-relations officer in North America…U.S. and Canadian officials and other people familiar with his activities.

The first item on Mr. Trudeau’s meeting agenda…U.S. and Canadian officials, White House readout of the discussion.

In private, Secretary of State Antony Blinken brought up…U.S. and Canadian officials.

Two presidents

He tapped Xie Feng…Chinese government officials, Canadian officials and U.S. officials.

Mr. Xi by then had sent more than 100 handwritten notes…Chinese government officials.

In July 2021, the Justice Department dropped charges…U.S. officials familiar with the situation.

The decision arrived in a handwritten note…people familiar with the situation.

The same day, Mr. Barton arrived for a prison visit…people familiar with the meeting.

Nervous that any snag could derail the prisoner exchange…people involved in the plans in Beijing and Ottawa.

In Vancouver, Ms. Meng and her lawyers had a deadline…people familiar with the court proceedings.

風蕭蕭_Frank

習近平百多命令 “換囚”救孟晚舟