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Hello and welcome to audio reads.

This week, Fraser Nelson makes the case for why we should be giving citizenship to the Hong Kong Chinese. We also hear from Douglas Murray, who asks why lockdown seems to be exempt for Black Lives Matter protests. And finally, Tanya Gold, our restaurant critic, turns her hand at Monster Munch. First up, Fraser Nelson.

When the fate of Hong Kong was last seriously considered by a British prime minister,

the world looked very different.

It was argued naively, but not much would change when the colony was handed back to China in 1997.

There was a deal that had been struck, Beijing

would run only the defence and the customs control and otherwise Hong Kong would be self-governing.

Now it was always unlikely that China would honour its promise, but the pretense at the time was

pretty useful to a Tory party that was, to its shame, terrified

of the alternative, of admitting that Britain had a moral duty to its subjects and to let them

stay British, which meant allowing them to settle in the UK if they wished. The deal with

China is now in tatters. Beijing has been gnawing away at Hong Kong's liberties for years China is now in tatters.

Beijing has been gnawing away at Hong Kong's liberties for years and is now engaged in an all-out assault.

The street protests, which had been going on for almost a year, ended with a COVID lockdown,

but China has used the interregnum to come back with its biggest crackdown yet.

Last month, it said that

Hong Kong will become subject to Beijing's laws on subversion. These are laws currently

...