THE LONG VIEW

There is a quiet war being waged not with bullets, but with spreadsheets—and David Webb was one of its most consequential soldiers. His life reveals a hidden truth: the most powerful revolutions often begin not with speeches or uprisings, but with the meticulous compilation of facts. Long before the 2014 Umbrella Movement or the 2019 protests, Webb was laying the intellectual groundwork for resistance by exposing how Hong Kong’s economy was rigged—not through overt force, but through interlocking directorships, shell companies, and regulatory capture. He understood that tyranny thrives in ambiguity, and so he weaponized clarity. His database wasn’t just a tool—it was a declaration of belief: that sunlight is the best disinfectant, and that data, when made public, can be revolutionary. This is not a new story. In 1902, Ida Tarbell published the first installment of her exposé on Standard Oil, not in a fiery pamphlet, but in a series of meticulously sourced articles in McClure’s Magazine. Like Webb, she was dismissed as a nuisance—until the facts she compiled became the foundation of a Supreme Court breakup order. Webb’s 'Enigma Network' report did the same: it didn’t just inform; it triggered action. And when the state moved to erase the very data he relied on, he did what truth-seekers have always done when cornered: he archived it, knowing that history often vindicates those it initially silences. His final act—seeking a successor—was not desperation, but faith in the pattern: that as long as one person is willing to keep the records, the light can never be fully extinguished [Source: The New York Times; Chernow, Ron; Applebaum, Anne; Havel, Václav]. —Sir Edward Pemberton