The Milk Tea Alliance: Inside Asia’s Struggle Against Autocracy and Beijing

Why are activists in Thailand, Hong Kong and Burma willing to court danger to help one another?

Historian Jeffrey Wasserstrom met dozens of dissidents, including Netiwit Chotiphatphaisal, known for his protests against compulsory Thai military service; Agnes Chow, co-founder of a political party now banned in Hong Kong; and Ye Myint Win (aka Nickey Diamond), who fled to Germany from Burma in the early 2020s, fearing reprisal from the junta for his human rights work.

Activists like these three express solidarity with one another online and in the streets, and sometimes refer to themselves as belonging to the “Milk Tea Alliance,” a nod to their shared opposition to nationalistic Beijing loyalists and the fact that their cultures’ iconic drinks contain dairy, unlike mainland China’s traditional tea.

The political situation in Burma, Thailand and Hong Kong are radically different. Only Burma is in a state of civil war. Only Hong Kong has changed in just a few years from a place with virtually no political prisoners to one with many. Only Thailand is a monarchy with lese-majeste laws.

How do these activists, each facing their unique situations, find common ground and sustain one another? Wasserstrom traveled globally to interview members of this loosely constituted alliance, meeting some in Asia and others in exile, finding them united by democratic values, shared concerns over autocrats, and the rising influence of a common adversary—the Chinese Communist Party.