Matthew Brooker, Columnist

Hong Kong’s Avoidable Tragedy Is Complete

The future of the democracy movement in the city can be summed up in two words: It’s over. Could things have been different?

April 1, 2021 at 10:00 PM UTC

By Matthew Brooker

Matthew Brooker is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering business and infrastructure. Formerly, he was an editor for Bloomberg News and the South China Morning Post.

Democracy fades away.
Photographer: XAUME OLLEROS/AFP

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“It’s got to look democratic, but we must have everything in our control.”

These are the words of Walter Ulbricht, the future leader of communist East Germany, in 1945. Though separated by almost eight decades and 9,000 kilometers, their resonance will be immediately apparent to anyone who has followed the remodeling of Hong Kong’s electoral system.