Moutai has one unmistakable advantage: the drink is China's national spirit. Moutai baijiu — the type of liquor the company makes — is a clear, potent spirit that's been dubbed "firewater," thanks to the fact that it's 53% alcohol. The red-and-white bottles of its flagship product, "Feitian," or "Flying Fairy," are a staple at Chinese state banquets and business events. Known as the favorite tipple of Mao Zedong, founder of Communist China, and as the "drink of diplomacy," it was
famously used to welcome former US President Richard Nixon on his historic trip to China in 1972, and
again in 2013 when Chinese President Xi Jinping met with his US counterpart, Barack Obama, in California.
Once, at
a state dinner in 1974, US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger told Deng Xiaoping, the future Chinese leader: "I think if we drink enough Moutai, we can solve anything." "Then, when I go back to China, we must take steps to increase our production of it," Deng responded, according to an
archived US government transcript.I think if we drink enough Moutai, we can solve anything."
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