Teapots made of Yixing purple clay has long enjoyed fame in China. The purple clay enhances the flavor to the beverages inside and thus makes it all the more special.

But the purple clay reserves have been nearly depleted by the teapot making. Therefore, the Yixing government prohibited further clay quarrying in 2005.

As a result, some local factories began using other minerals, mixed with ordinary clay, to produce fakes. This has now become public knowledge.

Since these fake teapots have a high heavy metal content, they are carcinogenic. So the fake teapots not only cheat customers, but also endanger public health.

From famous teapots to cancerous teapots, the Yixing brand has been badly downgraded. The same has happened through brand dilution in other industries, such as with Longjing tea and Jinhua ham. The prevalence of fakes has ruined the brand names, even for those who produce quality products.

This is also a failure of local government. The Yixing government didn't issue appropriate consumer alerts, and also relaxed its anti-counterfeiting standards at the same time.

The national test standards for the teapots haven't been kept up-to-date. At present, they only test for lead and cadmium, not other harmful heavy metals. The levels of such heavy metals in the fake teapots are hundreds of times higher than the safety line.

If the situation goes unchanged, then one day the Yixing tag line will change from "There's only one Yixing clay teapot" to "There are lots of teapots, but none of them have Yixing clay."

Procuratorial Daily