A months‑long dispute over so‑called "pre‑made" dishes at one of China’s best‑known restaurant chains exploded back into public view this week when Xibei’s founder Jia Guolong and outspoken critic Luo Yonghao were both placed under temporary mute on Weibo. Jia briefly reactivated an old account on the evening of January 16 to promise a full rebuttal to Luo’s accusations at 10pm, only for both his official Xibei account and Luo’s popular commentary account to be restricted shortly thereafter. Weibo’s chief executive publicly suggested that future exchanges of this nature should be conducted through media interviews rather than the platform, signaling an intervention in a high‑profile online spat.
The underlying fight is about more than a personal feud. It revives a reputational crisis that began in September 2025, when allegations that Xibei relied heavily on central‑kitchen pre‑processing sparked a public backlash that has since cut customer traffic by roughly half and forced the chain to announce the closure of some 102 outlets—around 30% of its network. Jia has defended the company by invoking official definitions issued in 2024, which distinguish industrial central‑kitchen processing from the category of "pre‑made dishes," but that legalistic defence has done little to calm customers who say their expectation of "freshly prepared" food was breached.
The personal tenor of the confrontation has sharpened the controversy. Jia told followers his family suffered doxxing that prompted one police report from his wife, and he claimed staff at Xibei branches had been verbally and physically abused, even forced to kneel, on multiple occasions during the height of the backlash. Luo, a serial entrepreneur and influential online voice, has repeatedly labelled much of Xibei’s menu as effectively pre‑made, a judgment that taps into broader consumer anxieties about industrialised food preparation and authenticity.
Xibei’s management has tried an array of remedial measures—deep discounting, large‑scale couponing, higher pay and publicised “sunshine kitchen” initiatives to highlight transparency—but the chain’s leaders admit those steps have not restored trust. Jia told a Chinese weekly that issuing more than 300 million yuan in coupons temporarily improved traffic but ultimately worsened the company’s financial position once the promotions ended. The episode illustrates how quickly a premium positioning built on quality and family‑friendly trust can be eroded when perception and labelings fail to align.
The dispute exposes a persistent policy gap in China’s restaurant sector. Authorities published a joint guidance in March 2024 clarifying that certain central‑kitchen processes do not constitute "pre‑made dishes," and the State Council’s food safety office convened ministries in 2025 to accelerate a national standard. Yet that work has not yielded a clear, consumer‑facing standard that can settle public debates, leaving firms vulnerable to reputational shocks regardless of regulatory technicalities.
The consequence is a cycle of public argument and regulatory lag. When official definitions are technical and opaque, they do not inoculate brands against the court of public opinion. The Xibei saga underscores the mismatch between industrial practices that enable scale and the emotional purchase consumers place on "freshness"—a mismatch other high‑growth chains in China’s fast‑casual sector now confront.
Beyond the restaurant floor, the episode also raises questions about platform governance. Weibo’s temporary restriction of both accounts and its CEO’s public intervention reflect a growing impatience with headline‑grabbing online confrontations that devolve into harassment or misinformation. For companies and critics alike, the moderation action is a reminder that social platforms are now active arbiters of how disputes are aired and who gets to speak.
If there is a silver lining, it lies in the policy agenda: clear, accessible standards for pre‑made or pre‑processed foods could stabilise market expectations, protect consumers, and give firms a credible way to explain operational choices. Absent that, similar flare‑ups—mixing reputational risk, online amplification and heavy‑handed public reaction—are likely to recur across China’s consumer sectors as industrialisation of service delivery accelerates.