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Anytime I encourage squatting with the knees and hips together instead of sitting the hips back first, invariably one or more very angry lurkers will tell me that only short-legged Asian lifters can squat that way, so let’s clear this up.
 
First, the motion down and up in a squat is not the same thing as the bottom position.
 
The bottom position itself is absolutely primarily determined by proportions along with mobility.
 
But how a lifter moves to get there is not—you have completely voluntary control of that motion.
 
The goal in the Olympic squat is upright posture to support a bar overhead or on the shoulders, and to train the body to be strongest in that motion to support the competition lifts.
 
Initiating the motion down with the knees and hips together helps avoid pushing the hips back more than necessary, which means leaning the trunk forward too much.
 
This also encourages better posture on the way up.
 
Through the middle of the squat, the hips and knees of a long-legged lifter will be farther back and forward respectively relative to those of a short-legged lifter, but the essential motion is no different.
 
Note that this does NOT mean bending the knees first—that’s an entirely different problem. Keep it simple: move yourself down into the bottom position as directly as possible while staying balanced.
 
Also important to note that often what appears to be an initial backward push of the hips is a final setting of the lower back, which rotates the pelvis.