Earlier in the day, the Hong Kong Education Bureau has recommended that schools review their book collections and remove materials that might violate the new security law introduced by the Chinese central authorities.
"The Chinese Communist Party's destruction of free Hong Kong continues. With the ink barely dry on the repressive National Security Law, local authorities – in an Orwellian move – have now established a central government national security office, started removing books critical of the CCP from library shelves, banned political slogans, and are now requiring schools to enforce censorship", Pompeo said in a statement released on Moday.
He continued, that "until now, Hong Kong flourished because it allowed free thinking and free speech, under an independent rule of law. No more. The United States condemns Beijing's repeated failure to live up to its obligations under the Sino-British Joint Declaration, and these latest assaults on the rights and freedoms of the people of Hong Kong".
On 30 June, the standing committee of the National Peoples' Congress, passed the draft law on national security in Hong Kong that criminalises subversion, separatism, terrorism and collusion with third countries. Chinese President Xi Jinping enacted the law shortly thereafter.
The new legislation triggered new waves of protests in Hong Kong. Despite the concerns of local activists over the new law's negative impact on civil liberties in the special administrative region, both Beijing and Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam have stressed that the law only aims to target subversive and terrorist activities without harming the existing democratic liberties of local residents.