Mooncakes have long been associated with graft. Businesses seeking favours from the government often send officials fancy boxes full of the pastry—and other, more expensive goodies
Save time by listening to our audio articles as you multitaskMooncakes are often dense, cloyingly sweet—and, as Carson suggested, re-gifted. They play a central role in celebrations of the mid-autumn festival, a popular Chinese holiday that falls on September 10th this year . But in the months leading up to the celebration, mooncakes have become the object of intense government scrutiny.
Something similar happened during President Xi Jinping’s first term , when he moved to stamp out corruption. . It is probably no coincidence that Mr Xi’s campaign was followed by a steep drop in mooncake sales. But the market has since rebounded. This year China is expected to churn out 437,000 tonnes of mooncakes, according to iiMedia Research, a consultancy. Sales are expected to reach 24bn yuan , up by 11.8% compared with last year.
Most bakeries and restaurants offer mooncakes in their traditional form, with a heavy crust encasing fillings such as red-bean paste, egg yolks or lotus seed. But expensive delicacies, such as shark’s fin and edible bird’s nest, are sometimes added. Luxury hotels and designer brands have packaged these fancy mooncakes together with gold leaf, jade and expensive tea or liquor.
Officials, therefore, have been inspecting mooncakes for sale in malls, supermarkets, hotels and restaurants. State media have published photos of uniformed agents on the hunt for “overpackaging and overpricing” . Anyone selling a mooncake gift set for more than 500 yuan must store the transaction data for two years, in case officials want to investigate.
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