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We provide translation of news in English from local media and other sources, for academic use.
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Milk Tea Alliance Takes on China's Little Pinks in Meme War

A row erupted after online supporters of the Chinese Communist Party, known as Little Pinks, took issue with a tweet from Thai actor Vachirawat Cheevaari (known as Bright), who seemed to imply Hong Kong was a separate country from China, and very quickly his girlfriend Weeraya Sukaram also drew down further Little Pink ire, as she has once commented that she dressed more like a "Taiwanese" after being told she looked like a "cute Chinese girl". Soon "Little Pink" started trolling Thai users, Thai users expressed their dissatisfacation with what Chinese did through online altercation in return. "Little Pink" who need to use a banned VPN to evade their own government's Great Firewall of censorship can only reply "ni ma sile(NMSL), meaning "your mother is dead."

Social media users from Taiwan and Hong Kong have also taken part in the online altercation on Twitter afterwards to fight against China's "Little Pink" nationalists. In a loose confederation of Twitterati known as the "Milk Tea Alliance", users from Thailand, Hong Kong and democratic Taiwan fought back with a string of memes - the hashtag #nnevvy, Weeraya's Twitter username. Most netizens from "Milk Tea Alliance" are impressed by Thai users' hillarious creativity and emotion management. The alliance was soon joined by users from Japan, the Philippines, Malaysia, South Korea and India. Seems like there is pent-up anti-China feeling from different countries.

Chinese current affairs commentator Jin Shan said China's education system trains everyone to think the same thing, which means its students typically lack the habit of independent thought. Yet, Chinese communist party could only control their citizens' mind but not everyone in the world.

Full Story: Rfa, (15-Apr)
https://bit.ly/3bCcZla

#Thailand #Taiwan #MemeWar #Bright #MilkTeaAlliance #Nationalism #Twitter #CCP #LittlePink
#Newspaper

Chinese dams along upper Mekong are behind serious droughts in Southeast Asian Countries, study says

While China claimed to be suffering from equally arid conditions in response to one of the worst droughts that was happening in Southeast Asian countries, new research from American climatologists show that Beijing’s engineers appear to have directly caused the record low levels of water in Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam while securing their own supplies. The report has been creating a lot of noise as the hashtag #StopMekongDam trends on twitter.

Alan Basist, one of the co-writers of the report, remarked that while countries like Cambodia and Thailand were suffering from serious droughts, there was plenty of water near the Tibetan Plateau, suggesting that a huge volume of water was being held back in China. The report also suggested that China’s dams might have held back more than 410 feet of river height based on data collected over the course of 28 years.

While China, with growing geopolitical power, has always claimed that they value win-win relationships with other nations, a backlash is currently growing among Southeast Asian countries. In this particular case concerning water supply, while China did propose development plans that allegedly will benefit Southeast Asian countries, Beijing has control of the upstream Mekong, which provides as much as 70% of water to downstream nations in the dry season, leading to speculations that China is simply another “imperial power” that seeks to control natural resources regardless of needs of the local populace.

The Chinese section of the river is currently punctuated by 11 major dams, providing more power that is needed by the region as well as blocking a large proportion of sediment that should have flowed to the river’s mouth in Vietnam. Conservationists worry that such actions will “kill the river” while China’s participation in regional groups dedicated to the river’s health remain minimal.

Full Articles: The New York Times, Reuters, (Apr 2020)
https://nyti.ms/3dtbAOl
https://reut.rs/2LdOnnf
https://reut.rs/2WfeuAs

#StopMekongDam #ChinaThreat #drought #Thailand #Laos #Cambodia #Vietnam
Petition to Stop China to build dam on the upstream Mekong River

(16 Apr) According to new research from American climatologists, China, where the headwaters of the Mekong spring forth from the Tibetan Plateau, was not experiencing the same hardship at all. Instead, Beijing's engineers appeared to have directly caused the record low water levels by limiting the river's flow. This has caused droughts in Southeast Asian Countries and therefore a petition is created for this issue. Currently more than 67000 signatures are received.

#StopMekongDam #Petition #drought #Thailand #Laos #Cambodia #Vietnam #ChinaThreat

Further reading:
Chinese dams along upper Mekong are behind serious droughts in Southeast Asian Countries, study says
https://t.me/guardiansofhongkong/20588

Source: Petition White House
#Newspaper

Thai Actor, Bright, Apologizes to China Over His Girlfriend’s Twitter Scandal

//“So pretty, looks just like a Chinese girl.”... “What style is this?” Weeraya responded, “Taiwanese girl.” This prompted a Twitter war between Chinese and Thai netizens as many Chinese netizens felt offended and disrespected by Weeraya’s actions. Chinese netizens on Weibo also started campaigns to boycott Bright and subbing teams vowed to stop subbing his series, “2gether: The Series”, which was really popular in China at the time.

//Bright remained silent on the issue until June 20. He uploaded a video on Weibo and apologized to China... had started out the video apologizing for his own mistake first... was sorry for “mistakenly referring to Taiwan as a country in a travel show” he hosted talking about Thailand and Taiwan... he was only introducing tourist destinations and wasn’t trying to impose any political agendas.

//When asked why he stayed silent on the accusations of insulting China and the Chinese people, Bright apologized and explained that he thinks it was a misunderstanding. He respects China and each person. He has never thought about insulting any race. Bright also apologized...

//Bright also expressed that he has Chinese heritage and definitely wouldn’t look down on Chinese people or ethnic Chinese. Lastly, Bright expressed his apologies in Chinese: “Hello everyone, I am Bright. I am sorry to China. I am sorry to you all.” Unfortunately, many Chinese netizens didn’t accept his apology. They left a lot of comments telling him to “get lost!” There were a minority of fans who left supporting comments.

//Watch the video here: https://www.weibo.com/tv/v/J7yEfvGLX?fid=1034:4518014322671659

Further reading:
Milk Tea Alliance Takes on China's Little Pinks in Meme War
https://t.me/guardiansofhongkong/19818

Full Article: 38jiejie, (20-Jun)

#SorryToChina #Kowtow #Thailand #Bright #Twitter #MemeWar #SharpPower #Taiwan #Nationalism
#Newspaper

Thailand protests: Risking it all to challenge the monarchy

//A growing movement among students has been calling for political reform in Thailand.

//"The King shall be enthroned in a position of revered worship" and that "No person shall expose the King to any sort of accusation or action".

//Thais are taught to respect, revere and love the monarchy, but also to fear the consequences of speaking about it.

//...have called for legal action against the student leaders, for an investigation into how they funded Monday's spectacularly-produced protest, and into which "dark hand" instigated the youngsters to come up with such outrageous demands.

//The student leader who read out the manifesto, Panusaya Sithijirawattanakul, has since stayed mostly on her campus, planning further rallies, and nervously watching the plain-clothes police who are now constantly monitoring her.

//the collapse of tourism has hit the economy very hard and drawn attention to one of the world's widest gaps between rich and poor.

//The decision earlier this year to dissolve a dynamic new political party, which had attracted the support of many younger voters, gave them the sense that the military-dominated political system was denying them a voice.

//That was compounded by the abduction and presumed murder of a Thai activist in Cambodia, blamed by some on elements close to the palace, and then by the dropping of all criminal charges against a member of one of Thailand's wealthiest families over the killing of a police officer in a hit-and-run incident eight years ago.

//On top of that, since the Covid-19 crisis started King Vajiralongkorn has spent nearly all his time living in a hotel in Germany, prompting a Twitter hashtag #มีกษัตริย์ไว้ทําไม #whydoweneedaking?, which was reposted more than a million times.

//He stressed that he wanted to reform, not overthrow, the constitutional monarchy.

//He focused in particular on the huge assets of the Crown Property Bureau, which, under the late King Bhumibol, had been notionally held in trust for the benefit of the Thai people, but have now been declared the personal property of the king, making him by far the wealthiest person in Thailand.

//Anon also questioned King Vajiralongkorn's decision to take personal command of all military units based in Bangkok

//"the three pillars of this country, nation, religion and monarchy, must be revered, not brought down to be played with like this. That's not the right way under a constitutional monarchy."

Full article: BBC, (14 Aug)
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-53770939

#Thailand #Monarchy #Students #Protest #politicalreform
#MilkTeaAlliance
Pro-democracy activists renew calls for boycott of Disney’s Mulan reboot


Image: https://t.me/guardiansofhongkong/25045

Controversy over Disney's new film Mulan started in August 2019 after Chinese actress Liu Yifei, portraying the titular heroine, supported police in Hong Kong who have been criticized for using excessive force against protesters.

The actress posted the following message on the Chinese micro-blog Weibo:

"“I support the Hong Kong police. You can all attack me now” (in Chinese) and “What a shame for Hong Kong" (in English).

With the growth of anti-authoritarian sentiments around the world, more and more people from different countries exhibited solidarity in their resistance against Chinese influence.

The Milk Tea Alliance is one example connecting citizens from Thailand, Hong Kong and Taiwan who are concerned with democracy and human right issues.

The Alliance originates from an internet meme responding to the Chinese nationalist netizens' attack of a Thai celebrity couple for showing support for Hong Kong and Taiwan over the social media.

Backing up their peers in Hong Kong and Taiwan, Netiwit Chotiphatphaisal, a Thai student activist, also called for #BoycottMulan and #BanMulan .

Source: CTV News, Canada #Sept5
https://www.ctvnews.ca/entertainment/pro-democracy-activists-renew-calls-for-boycott-of-disney-s-mulan-reboot-1.5093552

#Netiwit #Taiwan #Thailand
#Thailand #Education
Over 600 Students Rally for Education reform, Freedom of speech and Equality in Thailand

In Thailand, more than 600 high school students and teaching staff assembled outside the building of Education Bureau in the capital Bangkok, to denounce the current education system for its outdatedness, and turning students into puppets.

An 18-year-old protestor said, ”we are not robots. We have the right to voice out.”

In the march, some students held a gesture of 3 fingers, some had white ribbon, and others cross-dressed demanding equal rights for people of all genders.

Source: Stand News #Sept7
https://www.facebook.com/710476795704610/posts/3430630603689202/

#MilkTeaAlliance #EducationReform #Equality
Milk Tea Alliance disapproves of Chinese actress's support towards police brutality

Controversy over the film ignited last year, when its star, Liu Yifei, posted on the popular Chinese social media platform Weibo.

Translated, her message reads, “I support the Hong Kong police. You can all attack me now,” followed by, “What a shame for Hong Kong.”

Many voiced their disappointments toward Yifei for standing by the law enforcement and accused her of supporting police brutality and oppression.

In solidarity with people demanding democratic reforms, protesters in Thailand have also backed up their peers in Hong Kong and Taiwan, forming the Milk Tea Alliance. Ahead of Mulan’s release on Disney Plus on Friday, Netiwit Chotiphatphaisal, a Thai student activist, tweeted, “I invite everyone to #boycottMulan #banMulan to make Disney and the Chinese government know that state violence against the people is unacceptable.”

Source: ctvnews #Sep05
https://www.ctvnews.ca/entertainment/pro-democracy-activists-renew-calls-for-boycott-of-disney-s-mulan-reboot-1.5093552

#HongKong #Thailand #boycottMulan #NetiwitChotiphatphaisal #LiuYiFei
#StandWithHongKong and #StandWithThailand : Global Call for Freedom and Democracy

In Hong Kong, the slogans #StandWithThailand and #Save12HKYouths appeared on the road in Kornhill, Taikoo.

The slogans voiced support for the pro-democracy protests currently taking place in Thailand and raised concern over Chinese authorities' detention of 12 pro-democracy Hongkongers in China for over 50 days and counting.

Source: Stand News #Oct18
https://www.facebook.com/710476795704610/posts/3566163960135865/

#SaveThailand #Thailand #Whatshappeninginthailand
#ปล่อยเพื่อนเรา
#หยุดคุกคามประชาชน #HongKong #MilkTeaAlliance

=======
Italian Activists #RadicaliItaliani Call on the World to #Save12 Pro-democracy Hongkongers Detained in China
https://t.me/guardiansofhongkong/25977

Climate Activist #GretaThunberg Supports Hong Kong
https://t.me/guardiansofhongkong/26039
#StandWithThailand
Thai Police Shows Three-finger Salute to Civilians in Support of Freedom and Democracy

Pro-democracy protests in Thailand have entered the fifth day on October 18, 2020. Many scenes in Thailand recalled the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong: the supply chain formed by the gathering public; rallies that were initiated by the public and took place in different areas; the public which took turn to speak up for the leaderless movement; and the 'red sea' moment when protesters gave way to ambulances.

According to the report by The Matter (twitter@thematterco), the public rallying at Victory Monument in Bangkok chanted "Hong Kong is a country! Return independence to Hong Kong!". It was reported that on Oct 18, 2020, over 10,000 civilians protested in the area.

Moreover, AFP journalist Mladen Antov captured a Thai police showing the pro-democracy three-figure salute to the protesters. The photo has gone viral on the Internet. Many contrasted it with a photo of the Hong Kong police but showing the middle finger to the pro-democracy protesters during the 2019 Anti-Extradition Law Movement in Hong Kong.

According to Thai Enquirer, a former police officer told the public he resigned as he did not want to cause harm to any civilian. He also reminded his former colleagues that the duty of the police is to serve the public.

In Chiang Mai, university students held rally and expressed that in case the students in Bangkok cannot hold out, they would continue the fight.

Netizens initiated rallies in over 20 locations including Pathumtani and Nonthabur outside of the capital.

Photo: Mladen Antov @ AFP
Source: Stand News #Oct18
https://bit.ly/3dEnC8F

#Whatshappeninginthailand #MilkTeaAlliance #Thailand

======
#StandWithHongKong and #StandWithThailand : Global Call for Freedom and Democracy
https://t.me/guardiansofhongkong/26065
Thailand No Longer Top Overseas Destination for Chinese Tourists

According to the survey conducted by HSBC from Oct 28 to Nov 2, Japan and South Korea emerge as preferred spots and short-haul travel seen recovering faster than long-haul.

Most survey respondents said they’d need at least six months after quarantine restrictions are relaxed to become comfortable with international travel and an effective vaccine is key to bossing confident. The survey also showed people are more confident about domestic travel thanks to China’s success in containing the virus.

Source: Bloomberg #Nov12

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-11-23/thailand-no-longer-top-overseas-destination-for-chinese-tourists

#China #Travel #Thailand #ChineseTourists #Tourism
#StandwithMyanmar
The picture above was published on Myanmar Information with a caption that wrote, “While the military treats the police force as cannon fodder, a dog is standing behind the soldiers and watching their deeds” in Burmese.

Source: Stand News; #Mar3

#HongKong #Thailand #military #crackdown #Protests #Funerals

Read more
⬇️⬇️⬇️
#StandwithMyanmar
Although the military roiled a deadly crackdown on February 28 which killed 20 people and arrested over 1,200 civilians, more protesters took to the street on March 1 and March 2 to rally against the military rule.

As the military’s crackdown became increasingly violent and deadly, determined pro-democracy protesters put their names, blood type and contact details on their arms before part-taking in a rally. In the face of tear gas and gunfire, young protesters relied barely on debris, iron bars, wet towels, and plastic water bags for protection and defence.

Very few protesters were wearing proper gas masks. Construction site helmets were not able to protect them from live ammunition.

Funerals were seen in multiple places around the nation. Saddened citizens gathered to pay respect to the victims of military brutality at these funerals. They were gathered at the funerals to mourn them at places where the protester was shot and died.

The courage of young protesters and the violence of military oppression in Myanmar have recalled memories of the civil disobedience movement in Hong Kong in 2019.

A columnist of Stand News picked the news up and wrote on the paper with a hearty closing remark, “The animals in Animal Farm surrendered. But the people in Hong Kong, Thailand and Myanmar did not.

Source: Stand News; #Mar3
https://bit.ly/2PRcgX9

#Myanmar #HongKong #Thailand #military #crackdown #Protests #Funerals
Countries Signal Doubts About Delta Protection From Chinese Vaccine

Thailand became the latest country to signal waning confidence in a Chinese vaccine against the highly contagious Delta variant, saying it would offer booster shots of Western doses to healthcare workers.

Healthcare workers who received two doses of the vaccine developed by Sinovac Biotech Ltd. would be given a third shot made by either Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE or AstraZeneca PLC, Thailand’s health ministry said Monday. Those who had only one dose would receive AstraZeneca as their second.

The decision to mix the vaccines makes Thailand the latest country to show reservations about whether Chinese vaccines work well enough to protect medical workers against the Delta variant, which was first detected in India and is thought to be far more contagious than earlier versions of the virus. The strain has spread to at least 98 countries.

Source: WSJ #Jul13

https://t.co/TkCKN0gyaz

#Thailand #Vaccine #BioNTech #AstraZeneca #Covid19
Pro-democracy publishing house in Thailand targeted for shutdown by Chinese buyer

A pro-democracy publishing house in Thailand was approached by a Chinese businessman who wanted to pay it to shut down to boost his relationship with Beijing in the wake of the ruling Chinese Communist Party congress, its editors said in a statement.

A private investigation agency contacted Sam Yan Press in May with an offer of two million baht from a Chinese businessman who wanted to buy the company in order to shut it down, the publishing house said in a statement on its website dated Oct. 26.

Source: RFA #Oct28

#Thailand #Beijing #Businessman #CCP

https://t.co/NygVq66J94