What Chinese liquor maker Moutai's slump says about the country's economy

A staff member sorts Kweichow Moutai liquor at a supermarket in Yongnian district of Handan, North China's Hebei province, Jan 9, 2025.Cfoto | Future Publishing | Getty ImagesBEIJING — Walk down most streets in China and you'll find a liquor store advertising premium spirits brand Moutai, along with posters of resale prices by vintage year.It's a testament to how intertwined the red-and-white-labeled bottles have been with China's economy in recent decades. The 53% alcohol content "baijiu" was long a staple at government and business dinners for toasts and sealing deals, so much so that Moutai's stock became a market bellwether.But the spirits company is now struggling, as China's business world adapts to the tech-heavy artificial intelligence era.Kweichow Moutai's half-year report this month showed a rare drop in net profit, down by 1.95% to 44.5 billion yuan ($6.6 billion). It was the first decline for the first six months of a year since 2014, and only the second such drop based on data going back to 2002, according to Wind Information data. The latest results followed a decline of 4.5% in net profit for all of 2025 — the first annual decline on record, data showed.It's all rela...