As Hong Kong pro-democracy advocates voiced support for Thai anti-government protests over the weekend, they used the hashtag #MilkTeaAlliance.
In Bangkok, flags representing Hong Kong and independence for Taiwan appeared on a sign bearing the tag at the biggest demonstrations in years.
In Taipei, dozens of people gathered to back the Thai protests and give weight to a nascent community of cross-border youth movements pushing for democracy at home and uneasy with China’s growing regional power.
Photo: Reuters
“This is the first physical expression of the Milk Tea Alliance,” said Thai student Akrawat Siripattanachok, 27, who helped organize the show of solidarity in Taipei joined by Hong Kong advocates, a Chinese dissident and Taiwanese students. “We don’t want to just talk about it online. We want a pan-Asian alliance for democracy.”
A hashtag that began in April as a backlash to Chinese nationalist attacks on a Thai celebrity for a perceived slight to China shows signs of turning into a bigger movement uniting like-minded advocates.
Why milk tea? The light-hearted name represents a shared passion for sweet tea drinks in Taiwan, Thailand and Hong Kong.
“The innovative idea of Milk Tea Alliance will enhance more students to push forward global solidarity, which might confront hardline crackdown,” prominent Hong Kong democracy advocate Joshua Wong (黃之鋒) told reporters.
Wong tweeted support for the Thai protesters, while users on LIHKG, a social media forum used by Hong Kong demonstrators, also called on people to highlight the call of the Thai protesters for greater democracy and the departure of Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, a former junta leader.
“The show of solidarity between different pro-democracy groups in Asia reflects a greater intensity and camaraderie,” Parit “Penguin” Chiwarak, 22, one of the Thai protest leaders, told reporters.
Help flows both ways.
Some Thai students have shown support for Hong Kong advocates as Beijing has tightened its grip and for Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party in the face of increased Chinese rhetoric over what China views as a breakaway province.
“The situation in Thailand isn’t so different from Hong Kong or Taiwan, which are under pressure from the authoritarian government of China,” said Rathasat Plenwong, 24, a student protester with a Milk Tea Alliance sign.
The Thai and Hong Kong governments did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the alliance of advocates and whether they were concerned about its impact.
Taiwan respected the comments and positions of the Milk Tea Alliance on the development of the political situation in Thailand, but it took no position itself, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) said.
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Zhao Lijian (趙立堅) dismissed the cooperation.
“People who are pro-Hong Kong independence or pro-Taiwan independence often collude online, this is nothing new. Their conspiracy will never succeed,” Zhao said.
While the groups’ bonds might not concern China now, they were a clear sign of the challenge facing its influence in the region, Wasana Wongsurawat, a Chinese history professor at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University, told reporters.
“It’s amazing that the Hong Kong and Taiwan bond expanded into the Milk Tea Alliance with Thailand, a sovereign country that doesn’t even list Chinese as a national language,” she said.
Use of the hashtag peaked in April when Chinese Internet users hit back against attacks on the Thai celebrities who had appeared to suggest that Hong Kong was a state and that Taiwan was not part of China.
There have also been shows of interest from the Philippines, because of a dispute with China over the South China Sea, and India after border skirmishes with China since May.
Singaporean blogger and advocate Roy Ngerng, who was found guilty of defaming Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) in a 2014 blog post, was also in the crowd in Taipei.
“The Milk Tea Alliance became the common ground from which we can express our solidarity in humorous and safe spaces,” Ngerng told reporters. “Solidarity is taking on a more organizational and structural form.”
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