Pangdonglai retail chain, blogger, in social media spat

Efforts to protect reputation, legal rights of private biz from smear highlighted

Pangdonglai, a widely known retail chain despite operating just 13 stores in a mere two cities in Henan province, shut down its official website on Tuesday.

The shutdown was seen by many as linked to the chain's founder Yu Donglai's comments on social media platform Douyin on Saturday, in which Yu pointed to a public and legal battle with an online video blogger who "arbitrarily accused" the enterprise of profiting excessively from jade products.

In a short video posted by the blogger in early April under user name "Chaiduidui", he alleged that the company sold jade items worth only a few hundred yuan for thousands of yuan or even tens of thousands of yuan, and questioned the quality of such products.