Explained: What is the 'Milk Tea Alliance' and how did it start?

Apart from being generally pro-democracy and pro-liberty, the Milk Tea Alliance is specifically anti-People's Republic of China (PRC)

Over the past 15 years, social media has lent itself to many crowd-sourced movements. One of these is the Milk Tea Alliance, a loose coalition of young people from Hong Kong, Thailand, Taiwan and Myanmar. Apart from being generally pro-democracy and pro-liberty, the MTA is specifically anti-People’s Republic of China (PRC).

Why “Milk Tea Alliance”?

The name emphasises the fact that traditional Mandarin Chinese tea doesn’t use milk. The standard cuppa in Hong Kong has milk; so do Thai and Myanmar tea. Taiwan also drinks milky tea. Indian netizens, who’ve participated in the internet wars as allies of the MTA, are hailed as Masala Chai drinkers. Activists from Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia are also part of the MTA. So are Filipinos who don’t like the regime of Rodrigo Duterte. 

How did it start?

Back in April 2020, Thai actor Vachirawit Chivaaree posted a Twitter image that showed Hong Kong as a separate country. He apologised. But pro-PRC trolls (often referred to as the 50 Cent Party because they’re allegedly paid renminbi 0.50 / tweet) attacked him, his girlfriend, and sundry institutions such as the Thai monarchy.

Thai social media users promptly hit back with insulting, and funny, memes about Mainland China. The Chinese foreign office got involved by lodging a long, complicated official statement, which led to a fresh online troll-fest. Social media users from Taiwan and Hong Kong then pitched in on the Thai side. The movement gained momentum, after a coup in Thailand in August 2020. Myanmarese activists joined up in February after the military coup.

What is the MTA?

MTA may be described as a leaderless pro-democracy alliance. The participants are young, net-savvy Asians. Whenever there’s an online flame war about certain subjects, its members have closed ranks to support one another. So, you have Thais and Taiwanese backing activists protesting in Hong Kong and Myanmar, and vice-versa.

The MTA is strongly anti-PRC — it has made its presence known in support of Indian netizens after the Ladakh face-offs in 2020. Other targets include the Thai monarchy, which is facing calls for constitutional reform (yes, ironic given the origins of the MTA), Myanmar’s military junta and Filipino President Duterte. The MTA has also pitched in on Australia’s side in a Trade War with the PRC.

Why do MTA activists hate the PRC?

Apart from being generally pro-democracy, many MTA activists are drawn from Hong Kong (which has been fighting a very public battle against the imposition of Mainland-style laws); from the island of Taiwan (aka the Republic of China, which faces the constant threat of being forcibly reclaimed as sovereign territory by the PRC); Myanmar (where there’s resentment about the presence of Chinese money and interests); and Thailand (see how the movement began). Vietnam has fought a war with China and has running territorial disputes and alleges China is starving it of water resources by building dams on the Mekong River.

Twitter and Facebook are officially banned in the PRC, which lends credence to the widespread belief that pro-PRC online activists (The 50 Cent Party) are being paid, and allowed to get past the “Great Firewall of China” to spread pro-regime messages.

What does MTA do?

The MTA uses memes, humour, snappy one-liners, cartoons to get its point of view across. A lot of this happens in English, or via translation into English, because the opposing sides don’t necessarily know each other’s languages.

The MTA often posts maps where Hong Kong and Tibet are shown as separate countries. They also use a three-finger salute gif, pressing the three middle fingers of the left hand to the lips and raising it in the air ala The Hunger Games salute. (This gesture was briefly banned in Thailand.)   

The MTA also spotlights abuses such as the ongoing massacres in Myanmar, the existence of internment camps where Uighur are detained, “black laws” in Hong Kong, the Tiananmen Square Massacre.

What sort of humour?

When PRC nationalists sneered at “poor Thailand”, the Thais responded with “Winnie the Pooh” jokes targeting PRC President Xi Jinping who is sensitive about physical resemblance to the fictional teddy-bear. When Chinese trolls sneered about corruption in Thailand, they were stunned when the MTA amplified the tweets and encouraged them, “Say it louder!”