What impact would revoking status have?
It could jeopardise billions of dollars worth of trade between Hong Kong and the US and could dissuade people from investing there in the future.
It would also hurt mainland China, which uses Hong Kong as a kind of middleman for transactions with the rest of the world. Mainland companies and multinational firms use the territory as an international or regional base.
Shortly after Mr Pompeo's declaration, prominent pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong called on US, European and Asian leaders to follow his lead and reconsider Hong Kong's special trade status if Beijing imposes the security law.
"Once the law is implemented, Hong Kong will be assimilated into China's authoritarian regime, on both rule of law and human rights protections," he warned.
The security law would create "massive damage to expats and investors in Hong Kong", he said. Maintaining the city's autonomy was the "only way" to protect business, he added.
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