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of his effort to gain support in a country where corruption and a widening wealth gap have become sources of public discontent.
• Some 280,000 tons of mooncakes worth 16 billion yuan ($2.6 billion) were sold in China last year, according to the China Association of Bakery and Confectionery Industry. But given the frugality campaign, "we may see a big drop in this year's sales figures," said an official surnamed Yu.
• Mooncakes, typically sold in boxes of four, retail at supermarkets for $20 to $50. But offerings have become increasingly lavish to appeal to the growing middle class in China, where there is a strong culture of gift-giving aimed at showing off status and building up goodwill.
• Decadent varieties are stoking concern that they're being given in exchange for favors or used for other corrupt purposes, said Hu Xingdou, an economics professor

at the Beijing Institute of Technology.
• "We can see that gift-giving has been morally degenerated into a dirty means of bribery," Hu said.
• Banks and jewelers have even gotten in on the act. In Beijing, the China Gold Coin Co. is offering solid-gold mooncake-shaped ornaments for as much as 19,250 yuan ($3,150).
• "Some companies and unsavory businessmen take it up a notch" by giving bribes in the form of mooncakes packaged in gold, dia

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