How China's national liquor greased the wheels of corruption among Communist elites

FILE - A customer walks past a glass case displaying Maotai liquors at a supermarket in Shenyang, Liaoning province, Aug. 8, 2012. FILE - People take photos outside the stand for Kweichow Moutai, a Chinese liquor brand, at the China Food and Drinks fair in Chengdu, in China's southwest Sichuan province, April 4, 2021. FILE - A Luckin Coffee employee prepares baijiu liquor-flavored latte, the latest product in collaboration with Chinese liquor brand Kweichow Moutai, at a Luckin Coffee shop in Beijing on Sept. 4, 2023.

Kweichow Moutai, the distiller of China’s most prestigious liquor, has seen three of its ex-chairmen face investigations for graft over the past five years, with a new probe into a former head of the maker of “firewater” announced earlier this month.