The Milk Tea Alliance — originally some pro-democracy social media geekery in Hong Kong and Taiwan — is racing through South East Asia, with Australia the newest member of the netizen group and West Papua waiting in the wings.  

The Alliance, symbolising the most favoured beverage throughout southeast Asia — the orange-coloured condensed-milk tea of Thailand, the more British tea with milk version of Hong Kong, or the tapioca bubble tea of Taiwan — has now added Australia (holding a tin of baby formula) to its hands holding tea meme.  

The MTA started as a street-protest symbol; a Pan-Southeast Asian democracy movement which China considered a serious enough threat to...