HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong protesters formed a line, patiently waiting their turn to buy sweet milk and tea drinks from a store that advertised ardent support for their cause with a banner declaring, "If you set off a nuclear blast, we'll stick by you."
For quicker service, they could have quenched their thirsts at an adjacent store that also sells bubble tea. It had no customers — which is exactly as the protesters intended.
Digging in for the long haul against Hong Kong's government, protesters are expanding their struggle from the streets to their wallets, weaponizing their spending power to punish businesses they deem hostile to their cause. The aim: to drive some firms under in the deepening recession gripping the crisis-hit city.
Guiding the consumer choices of tech-savvy protesters are apps that are color-coding businesses — everything from dentistry clinics and toy stores to dumpling restaurants and sex shops — into two categories: yellow for protest-friendly, blue for suspected opponents.
"Blue! blue!" protesters yelled outside the bubble tea shop they shunned during a rally this month to mark the six-month milestone for their movement.
The protests started in June in opposition to now-withdrawn extradition legislation and have morphed into what demonstrators say is a full-blown fight to safeguard Hong Kong's freedoms, unique among China's cities. Months of clashes with riot police who have fired 26,000 tear-gas and rubber-baton rounds and arrested more than 6,100 people are radicalizing legions of youths, upending the city's economy and splitting families, work colleagues, friends and citizens into two entrenched camps.
Even employees of the supposedly "blue" bubble tea store, wearing face masks like many of the demonstrators, advised them not to shop there, saying the company was not sympathetic to the protest movement.
"It stands for the police," protester Natasha Chan said, clutching a grapefruit and lemon tea purchased instead from the "yellow" Happy Holidays drinks store next door. "We chose not to shop from the blue side."
Protesters believe that by boycotting pro-establishment businesses, they can help shift the balance of power and wealth in the semiautonomous Chinese territory.
Much of the city's $345 billion economy and political influence are concentrated in the hands of magnates and enterprises linked to or supportive of mainland China and its Communist Party-led government — the ultimate boss of Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam.
Protesters say that shopping yellow is another way to make their voices heard in the absence of direct elections for government leaders. Protesting with their wallets also enables people who can't always join street rallies, including those who fear being fired by pro-China employers, to otherwise contribute to the movement.
Before marching in the rally for the half-year milestone, accountant Nakata Law lined up for 15 minutes to support a snack shop that has donated to the protesters’ cause, buying its steamed dumplings and gluey rice pancakes. A poster on the Jar Gor eatery says: "Support Yellow. This store has been rated as a true Hong Konger merchant."
"Most of the economy is controlled by China," Law said. "The citizens’ view is that if we do not have our own economic circle in Hong Kong, we cannot support our protests to keep carrying on."
In the opposing camp, Phyllis Li, a systems analyst who believes protest violence has gotten out of hand, says she now chooses to eat at restaurants that protesters boycott "because it is not fair to them."