Taipan mooncakes pulled from shelves in mainland China after founder’s son denounced for supporting Hong Kong protests

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.

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Mooncakes are traditionally eaten during the Mid Autumn festival, which falls later this month, so this is the peak season for mooncake sales.

A staff member from Yingming Kailai Technology and Trade Development Company, which imports the cakes for mainland supermarkets and Tmall, said the product had been removed from the shelves of stores in Beijing. The items have also been taken off sale in other major cities such as Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

Liu Shuting, who is responsible for store sales in the capital, said all the firm’s products had been withdrawn and the company was losing a lot of money.

“I can’t control what Mr Kwok said. I think the products are fine but we will have to suffer a big financial loss because of what he said,” Liu said.

The blacklisting follows an attack in party mouthpiece People’s Daily that criticised Kwok’s Facebook posts for supporting the “activities of those dressed in black”, and “forwarding pictures to ridicule the government and police, which has aroused public anger”.

Listed as evidence were Kwok’s posts on Facebook late last week, which included a drone picture of a protest that he described as “Hongkongers forming a pro-democracy human chain across the city” and another picture that said people who supported the Hong Kong police must “have a lack of empathy … and are inferior, selfish and arrogant”.

People’s Daily’s article has been widely recirculated by other mainland media, including the nationalist tabloid Global Times.

Kwok apologised and deleted the posts, but could not stop the criticism from snowballing.

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“What I said and shared in Facebook is personal and not related to Taipan Bread & Cakes. I hereby apologise if they have caused misunderstanding or offended anyone,” Kwok posted on Friday.

The apology was shared by the brand’s account on Weibo, accompanied by another statement that Kwok’s remarks did not reflect the company’s stance.

Both apologies were badly received by mainland internet users, who criticised them for being insincere and insisted on a boycott.

“So he basically said, I am against the mainland but I am not against making money from mainlanders,” said one Weibo user.

“We don’t accept apologies from anyone or any organisation that erred on major issues of principle. I am warning you, if you don’t agree that you are a Chinese, just get out of China with your products and money,” wrote another Weibo user.

Hong Kong is currently in its 13th week of anti-government protests, which have triggered a nationalistic backlash in mainland media and online.

Many brands and celebrities, from bubble tea stores to luxury brands, have come under fire for their perceived stance on the issue.