Students in Hong Kong are now banned from any political activity in schools including singing, posting slogans and boycotting classes, the territory’s education minister has said.

Thousands of children became heavily involved in Hong Kong’s pro-democracy push last year.

Some 1,600 were arrested for joining the sometimes violent demonstrations.

The order comes on the same day that a new national Chinese security office opened in the city.

The office is one element of a sweeping new law that makes inciting hatred of China’s central government and Hong Kong’s regional government illegal.