The most luxurious beverage, a bottle of Moutai worth more than 200 million won (20,000 yuan) reportedly appeared during the summit dinner between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Chinese President Xi Jinping, which provoked a storm of outrage on the Chinese Internet.
North Korea’s state media released a photo of a male employee holding two bottles of Moutai during the two leaders’ dinner in Beijing last week. Chinese netizens got the photo enlarged and learned that the bottle drank by the pair in the summit is limited-edition Moutai, specially produced from the 1960s through the 1980s. With its signature yellowish brown bottle, a 540-milliliter bottle of the liquor is currently selling at about 217.15 million won (1.28 million yuan) on Chinese online shopping mall. That means a small glass would cost at least 3.2 million won.
Chinese netizens are making complaints, calling the use of the luxury alcohol for hosting Kim Jong Un wasting the taxpayers’ money. Chunxian, an attorney in Hunan province, submitted an application to the State Council to disclose the expenses and expenditures spent on Beijing and Pyongyang summit.
Sung-Ha Joo zsh75@donga.com