WASHINGTON (AFP) – US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday (July 6) lashed out at what he called China’s “Orwellian” moves to censor activists, schools and libraries in Hong Kong under a new sweeping security law.

The authorities in the financial hub have ordered schools to remove books for review under the new law, which has criminalised certain opinions such as calls for independence or autonomy.

Libraries said they were pulling titles from a handful of pro-democracy activists.

“The Chinese Communist Party’s destruction of free Hong Kong continues,” Pompeo said in a sharply worded statement.

“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,” he said.

He condemned what he called the “latest assaults on the rights and freedoms of the people of Hong Kong”.

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