Thread by @joshuawongcf

[My idea on #MilkTeaAlliance]

1/ “The innovative idea of Milk Tea Alliance will enhance more students to push forward global solidarity which might confront hardline crackdown,” Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong told Reuters.

https://twitter.com/joshuawongcf/status/1295793268760879105

2/ I believed #MilkTeaAlliance could create a “pan-Asia” grassroots movement that would draw more attention to social causes in Asia. “Be it Belarus, Thailand, or other places where injustice is happening, we are constantly fighting for the same beliefs."

https://twitter.com/joshuawongcf/status/1316219709281374209

3/ I added my voice to the throng, posting a meme of three figures clinking glasses of milk tea and calling for pan-Asian solidarity “to fend off all forms of authoritarianism from China.” (Interview from @niccijsmith @Telegraph)

4/ Joshua described the spontaneous online movement in an interview as a “paradigm shift” of solidarity in Southeast Asia against China’s “authoritarian ideology” that dovetailed with existing cross-border networks of pro-democracy activists.

5/ “Milk Tea Alliance is more about how netizens and key opinion leaders on social media can take a leadership role and generate pressure against the momentum of Beijing’s propaganda machine,” he said.

6/ The alliance represented not only widespread anger over China’s stance on Hong Kong, Taiwan, Xinjiang and Tibet, but also wider regional issues linked to growing Chinese influence and expansion through its Belt and Road initiative and infrastructure development, he added.

7/ More recently, the hashtag has been aligned with news of satellite evidence showing that Chinese dams withheld water from the lower Mekong region during a damaging drought in downstream countries, raising alarm in Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam.