There was a choice and it existed at both the level of high politics and low cunning. However, in its inimitable way, the Hong Kong government chose to squander this opportunity because doing what's wrong comes naturally.
Donald Tsang Yam-kuen, the chief executive, made an unequivocal pledge at the time of his so-called election to resolve the issue of political reform, and could have seized the moment to put forward a series of proposals to set Hong Kong on the road to universal suffrage.
Instead, he has opted for getting his masters in Beijing to make a vague promise of further progress and focused, as before, on the issue of his successor's selection without the minimal guarantees that there will be an unfettered choice of candidate.
If the central government's pledge that universal suffrage for Hong Kong was 'beyond any doubt', it should have been possible, at the very minimum, to outline a timetable for defusing this doubt. The fact that this was not done is rather more eloquent than the pledge.
Meanwhile, ahead of the constitutional reform announcement on Wednesday, there have been months of unexpected debate in the democratic camp which, to be blunt, resulted in a split among allies who once stood firmly together.
A sizeable number of democrats declared a willingness to settle for a comprise involving some modest progress towards the elimination of rotten boroughs in the legislature in return for longer-term pledges of reform.