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.”
PARLIAMENT CHAOS: Police forcibly removed Brazilian Deputy Glauber Braga after he called the legislation part of a ‘coup offensive’ and occupied the speaker’s chair Brazil’s lower house of Congress early yesterday approved a bill that could slash former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro’s prison sentence for plotting a coup, after efforts by a lawmaker to disrupt the proceedings sparked chaos in parliament. Bolsonaro has been serving a 27-year term since last month after his conviction for a scheme to stop Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office after the 2022 election. Lawmakers had been discussing a bill that would significantly reduce sentences for several crimes, including attempting a coup d’etat — opening up the prospect that Bolsonaro, 70, could have his sentence cut to
China yesterday held a low-key memorial ceremony for the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) not attending, despite a diplomatic crisis between Beijing and Tokyo over Taiwan. Beijing has raged at Tokyo since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last month said that a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan could trigger a military response from Japan. China and Japan have long sparred over their painful history. China consistently reminds its people of the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, in which it says Japanese troops killed 300,000 people in what was then its capital. A post-World War II Allied tribunal put the death toll
A passerby could hear the cacophony from miles away in the Argentine capital, the unmistakable sound of 2,397 dogs barking — and breaking the unofficial world record for the largest-ever gathering of golden retrievers. Excitement pulsed through Bosques de Palermo, a sprawling park in Buenos Aires, as golden retriever-owners from all over Argentina transformed the park’s grassy expanse into a sea of bright yellow fur. Dog owners of all ages, their clothes covered in dog hair and stained with slobber, plopped down on picnic blankets with their beloved goldens to take in the surreal sight of so many other, exceptionally similar-looking ones.
‘UNWAVERING ALLIANCE’: The US Department of State said that China’s actions during military drills with Russia were not conducive to regional peace and stability The US on Tuesday criticized China over alleged radar deployments against Japanese military aircraft during a training exercise last week, while Tokyo and Seoul yesterday scrambled jets after Chinese and Russian military aircraft conducted joint patrols near the two countries. The incidents came after Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi triggered a dispute with Beijing last month with her remarks on how Tokyo might react to a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan. “China’s actions are not conducive to regional peace and stability,” a US Department of State spokesperson said late on Tuesday, referring to the radar incident. “The US-Japan alliance is stronger and more
RSS