The U.S. State Department said on Friday it had terminated five cultural exchange programs with China in the latest move targeting cultural exchange activities between the two countries. 

These programs are the Policymakers Educational China Trip Program, the U.S.-China Friendship Program, the U.S.-China Leadership Exchange Program, the U.S.-China Transpacific Exchange Program and the Hong Kong Cultural and Exchange Programme. "Such programs," claimed the department on its website, are "soft power propaganda tools."

On Saturday, the government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) expressed regret over the U.S. State Department's decision to terminate exchange visits, calling it "short-sighted and premised on false assumptions."

"The Hong Kong Cultural and Exchange Program has been running for many years and has provided valuable opportunities for U.S. Congressional staffers to gain first-hand insight into Hong Kong's development and issues of mutual interest," a spokesperson for the HKSAR government said in a statement.

"This is yet another of those unilateral and illfully motivated decisions taken by the U.S. administration that not only undermine long-standing co-operation and engagement but also close the door on dialogue for the sake of political diatribe," read the statement.

The decision was announced over one month after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo threatened to close all Confucius Institutes in the U.S. in October.

In a response to Pompeo's remarks on Confucius Institutes, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said that China has urged the U.S. to stop politicizing educational exchange programs and regular people-to-people exchanges, and to promote mutual trust and cooperation between the two countries.

He rebuked Pompeo's groundless remarks, saying they were made out of ideological prejudice and political interests. 

The spokesperson also warned that Pompeo's comments had severely harmed mutual trust and cooperation between China and the U.S. 

Read more: China urges U.S. not to politicize Confucius Institute programs