Attorney General William Barr and other U.S. leaders condemned the Chinese government’s move to arrest more than a dozen leaders from Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement for alleged crimes stemming from last year’s mass protests.

“I condemn the latest assault on the rule of law and the liberty of the people of Hong Kong,” Barr said on Saturday. “These events show how antithetical the values of the Chinese Communist Party are to those we share in Western liberal democracies. These actions — along with its malign influence activity and industrial espionage here in the United States — demonstrate once again that the Chinese Communist Party cannot be trusted.”