Factory workers in a southern Chinese electronics plant downed tools yesterday after Beijing’s anti-graft campaign deprived them of a perk that they consider less a bribe than a birthright: free mooncakes, traditionally offered by companies throughout China to reward staff on this week’s moon festival holiday.

Not any more: President Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign – which has targeted all forms of bribery, including the giving of mooncake boxes packed with hidden cash or adorned with precious jewels – has this year hit even the far humbler forms of pastry offered to the ordinary factory worker.

Staff at the Dongguan Masstop Liquid Crystal Display Company, a Taiwanese electronics manufacturer, say they went on strike after being offered only an extra chicken leg at lunch – and not a large one at that – but no mooncakes and a sharply reduced holiday cash bonus.