Fighting tyranny with milk tea: the young rebels joining forces in Asia

The language, the demands and the backdrop were different, but the protests across central Bangkok last week would have looked familiar to anyone who followed the mass demonstrations that roiled Hong Kong for a year from June 2019.

Crowds of young protesters, dressed in black and wearing hard hats, poured through the streets to locations announced at the last minute on social media. As the police closed in and the protesters prepared for confrontation, hand gestures and human chains ensured supplies including protective masks and water reached the front lines.

Tactics adopted from Hong Kong demonstrations have helped the movement survive both the jailing of most of its leaders and direct attempts by the prime minister Prayuth Chan-ocha to ban the demonstrations.

But Hong Kong