Taipan mooncakes pulled from shelves in mainland China after founder’s son denounced for supporting Hong Kong protests
- Company’s signature mooncakes taken off sale after state media denounces Garic Kwok over Facebook posts that ‘ridiculed the government and police’
- Blacklisting comes at busiest time of year for mooncake makers and one mainland importer said it would take a big financial hit as a result
Mainland Chinese retailers have stopped selling a popular Hong Kong brand of mooncakes after state media denounced the son of the founder for supporting the protests in Hong Kong.
Taipan Bread and Cake, which is best known for its snowy mooncakes, appears to have been taken off two of the mainland’s biggest e-commerce sites Tmall.com and JD.com after Garic Kwok, a company director, was criticised in an article published in People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s official mouthpiece, on Monday.
On Monday morning, searches for the brand results in “no relevant information” on Tmall.com, and the store could not be found on JD.com.
Tmall is operated by Alibaba, which also owns the South China Morning Post. Both Tmall and JD have not responded to requests for comment.
Mooncakes are traditionally eaten during the Mid Autumn festival, which falls later this month, so this is the peak season for mooncake sales.