A website backed by the Chinese government has accused HSBC on Tuesday July 28 for being part of the arrest of Huawei Technologies’ chief financial officer.

Huawei’s CFO Meng Wanzhou is currently battling against being extradited from Canada to the United States, being accused of bank fraud for misleading HSBC over Huawei’s relationship with a company that is currently operating in Iran. This put HSBC at risk of being issued fines and penalties for breaking the sanctions imposed by the United States on Iran.

If proven guilty, Meng Wanzhou will face up to ten years in prison according to laws in the United States.

The Chinese government has voiced its displeasure over the treatment of Meng Wanzhou and Huawei on numerous occasions, leading to vast criticism being directed towards HSBC recently.

The latest of such attacks on HSBC comes from the government-backed website China.com.cn, stating that “The role of HSBC in the Meng Wanzhou incident is already clear. HSBC’s credibility has also been wiped out.”

In a column written under the byline Tang Hua, and signed by three of the website’s editors, it stated that “HSBC was the one who ‘handed the knife’,” in the United States’ investigations on Huawei and of Meng Wanzhou.

Whilst HSBC issued a statement on Saturday stating that it had not been involved in the decision taken by the United States Department of Justice to investigate Huawei well and that it had nothing against the company, the Chinese website completely dismissed this.

The Chinese website claimed that HSBC’s statement was completely “meaningless”.

The column continued to attack HSBC, claiming that it is “wallowing in degradation” and that its reputation is “at rock bottom”.

A spokeswoman for HSBC in China refused to comment on the matter.

Usually, HSBC is very politically neutral, yet last month opt to break this, backing China’s imposition of the very controversial and criticised national security law in Hong Kong.

HSBC generates most of its revenue in Hong Kong and China.

Over the past week, other official Chinese media outlets have attacked HSBC, including People’s Daily newspaper and the China Global Television Network.