On 7 January 2018，the Beijing News revealed on its WeChat account “Major Case Squad No.37” that underground workshops across Hejian，a city of Hebei province，were producing and selling fake donkey meat to many places of China. The story was reposted on a variety of media platforms and soon attracted much attention. The second day，the government of Hejian launched a three-month campaign to clean up the donkey meat processing industry，and began to carry out blanket inspection in 28 townships，immediately easing the public discussion，which began to calm down on 11 January. The discussions focused on the negligence of the regulators and the insufficient supply of donkey meat. Suggestions were made on how to raise the profile of donkey meat as a specialty of Hejian.