If you spend enough time in China, you will inevitably encounter fake Chinese drinks, and by “drinks,” I mean the alcoholic variety. These essentially come in three types: actual faked brands, similar-looking brands, and outright fake alcohol.
The first two are, for all intents and purposes, harmless enough, but the third one? It can literally kill you. And this isn’t just a problem in China—there have been cases in Laos, Vietnam, and even as far away as Fiji in late 2024.
So, how exactly do fake Chinese drinks work? Here’s The Street Food Guy’s guide.
Table of Contents
Fake Chinese Stuff!
I’ll give a great apology here for understanding fake Chinese drinks and other fake Chinese items. Oppo, which is now a major Chinese brand, started by making iPod and iPhone rip-offs. As you can see, the name “Oppo” sounds like “Apple” instead of the literal translation of “ping guo.” This was done to trick people.
Then, all of a sudden (well, it took a long time), Oppo became its own brand and stopped being a mere rip-off of its muse. They even started pretending this was never the case, exported to the wider world, and accused other Chinese brands of copying them.
This has been seen with other brands too, such as Dicos, which was initially a poor KFC parody before becoming its own entity. Nowadays, they are so big they not only sponsor Chinese basketball, but also have a branch at Dandong Railway Station. And don’t even get me started on Luckin Coffee.
What these brands all have in common is that they’ve grown as China has grown, benefiting from a Chinese drive toward homemade goods and an almost anti-foreigner rhetoric.
Faked Drink Brands
This is something you see much less in China now, but pretty much any international drink brand had a Chinese version in exactly the same packaging, sometimes for a fraction of the price.
Here’s a little anecdote: I was traveling from Rason and onto our former Borderlands tour when we got to Linjiang, a town on the DPRK border. I saw a bottle of Jack Daniels, so I asked the shop owner the price, and he quoted me $50. I then asked, “Is it fake?” to which he vehemently denied. The only problem? The whisky was almost transparent. I showed the owner, and he just laughed without even offering a discount.
When I owned The DMZ Bar, other bar owners in Yangshuo would bandy around accusations that their bars used “fake liquor.” I would also have people ask if I purchased fake liquor. I would honestly reply that we never tried to buy, nor knowingly purchased fake liquor, but that in the pursuit of a cheap price, we had no doubt unwittingly done so at some point. This probably happened more than anyone would like to admit, because in the hunt for a bargain, we would end up with fake Chinese drinks.
Similar-Looking Brands
While not fake Chinese drinks, similar-looking brands mirror what China often does with clothes by trying to look as close to an international brand without directly copying it. I’m sure that in their minds, this is a great way to hoodwink local people with less English skills, even though the prices aren’t much lower. I saw this today with a Jack Daniels clone called “Casa Blake” and some “brandy” designed to look like posh brandy. I have no doubt these would taste awful.
Then there’s Chinese wine, which is terrible regardless of the money spent to “compete” with the wider world. These wines are designed to look foreign, with the craftsmanship having improved greatly over the years.
Lastly, we have the local alcopop scene, which is dominated by Rio. You can click my link to read my full article on them! Basically, Bacardi Breezer was big in China, so Rio was formed as a local rip-off. The Breezer has now disappeared from China, with Rio reigning supreme. What’s funny, though, is that Rio rip-offs were formed, such as Sol and Bio, which looked identical. Rio sued for copyright infringement and actually won. The irony? Suntory of Japan had previously sued Rio for copyright infringement related to their Horoyoi Line. This is what we call poacher turned gatekeeper.
Please see my previous comments about Oppo!
Fake Chinese Drinks That Kill
Thankfully, this is much less prevalent in China now, but it still occurs frequently in Southeast Asia. This involves fake or poorly made fake alcohol, which contains too much methanol and can—and does—kill people. As previously stated, in 2024, nine people died in Vang Vieng, Laos, after drinking such alcohol. While fake Chinese drinks of this kind are rarer now, it still happens occasionally. Ironically, I don’t get this problem when I drink actual moonshine in Papua New Guinea and Bougainville, but I digress…
And that’s the world of fake Chinese drinks—something that’s pretty darn hard to avoid.