Milk Tea Alliance

The Milk Tea Alliance is an online democratic solidarity movement mainly made up of netizens from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, and Myanmar (Burma). It originally started as an internet meme, created in response to the increased presence of Chinese nationalist commentators on social media and has evolved into a dynamic multinational protest movement advocating democracy. Aside from the four main countries mentioned, the movement has also established a significant presence in the Philippines, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Belarus and Iran.
Background.
In April 2020 during the 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests, Thai actor Vachirawit "Bright" Chivaaree, the star of "," a Thai TV drama that was also popular in China, reposted an image on Twitter which listed Hong Kong as a "country" despite it actually being a special administrative region of China. His post led to negative reactions from Chinese netizens, who attacked him and called for a boycott of his show. Vachirawit apologized and took the image down, but Chinese netizens soon discovered a post by his girlfriend, model Weeraya "Nnevvy" Sukaram, from 2017 which insinuated that Taiwan was an independent country despite it being claimed by China (Thailand currently has formal relations with the PRC only, but keeps an informal relation with Taiwan) and attacks continued, with insults targeting various aspects of Thailand, including Thai King Vajiralongkorn and Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha. Thai netizens took to social media and defended Vachirawit with their criticism turning into more generalized criticism of China, launching a Twitter war with the hashtag #nnevvy. The Chinese embassy in Bangkok posted a long statement on Facebook condemning the online criticism and a fierce digital battle ensued between Thai netizens and the Chinese embassy. Within Thailand, support for Hong Kong and Taiwan's struggle against Chinese encroachment has unified the disparate groups of pro-democracy protesters with anti-Beijing sentiment becoming a part of their anti-authoritarian platform.
Twitter users in Taiwan and Hong Kong soon joined Thai users in what "The Telegraph" called "a rare moment of regional solidarity". Pallabi Munsi, writing in "OZY," described the Milk Tea Alliance taking on 50 Cent Party and Little Pink as "Asia's volunteer army rising against China's internet trolls."
In April 2021, Twitter created an emoji in support on the Milk Tea Alliance following anti-Beijing protests across Hong Kong and the 2021 Myanmar coup. It marked the one year anniversary of the Milk Tea Alliance.
Name.
Milk tea refers to the common drink found between the first founding three members: Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Thailand. Netizens Myanmar and India, who joined later on, also shares their own variation of milk tea. Taiwanese bubble tea, Hong Kong-style milk tea, Thai tea and Burmese lahpet are all local variations of milk tea with strong similarities.
Timeline.
In the following months, the Milk Tea Alliance has evolved from being an anti-Beijing meme into a "leaderless protest movement pushing for change across Southeast Asia."