A 400-year-old knife brand organised its own staff to write fake five-star reviews

In July 2022, a customer in Guangzhou posted that a Zhang Xiaoquan knife had snapped while smashing garlic — a basic kitchen task. The '拍蒜断刀' (garlic-smashing knife break) story went viral on Weibo, raising questions about the quality of China's most famous knife brand, founded in 1628.

Rather than address the product complaints, the company's e-commerce arm organised a review-manipulation scheme. From December 2022 to April 2023, employees created WeChat groups to place fake orders and write positive reviews across two flagship stores. The regulator later counted 21 batches, 345 fake orders worth about ¥78,000, with ¥77,700 refunded — the actual revenue from the scheme was ¥431.60.

On 13 November 2023, the Hangzhou Linping District Market Supervision Administration fined the company ¥250,000 for false advertising and ordered it to stop. The penalty was reported widely on 22 November. The case showed that a heritage brand's response to a quality crisis was not to fix the knife but to fix the reviews — and that the regulator was watching.