Money talks: Hong Kong protesters weaponising spending power

Customers lining up at a tea shop lined with a 'Lennon wall' of pro-protest notes in Hong Kong. Stores that have come out in open support of Hong Kong's pro-democracy protest movement, nicknamed 'yellow shops', make their politics plain and are winning customers in protest-hit Hong Kong because it. — Photos: AP

HONG KONG: The 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.