When Lee Jae-yong finished watching the full replay of the Harmony X2 launch, his hands trembled slightly.
For once, the ever-composed Samsung chairman lost control.
"Damn CS… damn Haifeng."
To him, Apple was their only true competitor. CS? That was a fluke—a lucky nobody.
They had always designed their product launches to go head-to-head with Apple, not some upstart from China.
The Note 4 was built to rival the iPhone 6. The Galaxy S6 was Samsung's answer to the iPhone 6S.
And yet, the Harmony X2-targeted, timed, and tuned landed squarely in Samsung's path, not Apple's.
That wasn't part of the plan.
Lee paced for a moment, then barked toward the door:
"Someone get me Peter Pu—head of China operations. I don't care what it takes. This Harmony X2 cannot be allowed to disrupt our sales in China."
CS had launched the Harmony X2 at the perfect time. The result?
Samsung's S6 sales plummeted overnight.
From tens of thousands of units a day to barely four figures.
Peter Pu felt the hit immediately.
The man didn't sleep. His hair turned visibly grayer in a single week.
Now he sat in his office, staring at CS's homepage, chewing on a pen cap.
"Where do we start attacking them?"
Cutting the S6's price was an option, but submitting that to HQ would make him look incompetent.
He'd be admitting failure.
There had to be another path.
"Smear them."
That was it.
He didn't need to outsell the Harmony X2. He needed to undermine its legitimacy.
The plan went live in hours.
Weibo, Zhihu, and tech news blogs suddenly filled with hot takes and "expert" analysis:
"Is wireless charging safe?"
"CS shamelessly copies Samsung's fast charging design."
"The hidden dangers of wireless charging!"
Almost every hit piece zeroed in on the same point: The Harmony X2's most hyped feature—wireless charging.
The aim was precise: Attack the tech. Undermine consumer confidence. Push fear, uncertainty, and doubt.
At CS HQ, Liu Jianyu stormed into Haifeng's office, face red with anger.
"Boss, the smear campaign's heating up. We've already seen over 100,000 pre-order cancellations."
His voice shook—not out of fear, but fury.
"They're trashing us across the whole internet. Painting our phone as a safety risk and Samsung as the gold standard."
Haifeng rubbed his temple.
He'd already noticed the posts. They were coordinated. Obvious.
The accounts pushing the smear? Influential Weibo tech bloggers—each likely paid off through backchannels.
"It's them," he said quietly.
"Only Samsung would hit this hard, this fast."
Just then, Zhao Lan from the PR department rushed in with a laptop.
"President Lu… you need to see this."
She played a video.
It showed Peter Pu, Samsung's head of China operations, holding a press conference. In it, he publicly accused CS of false advertising and stealing Samsung's fast-charging IP.
Haifeng's expression darkened.
Now it was official.
This wasn't backroom sabotage.
Samsung used its brand authority to guide public opinion, turning its global name into a weapon.
And it was working.
Netizens began turning on CS:
"So, CS copied Samsung after all?"
"I thought they were innovating… guess not."
"Was gonna buy the Harmony X2, but forget it. Feels shady now."
The mood had flipped. Just days earlier, CS was being hailed as China's pride. Now, they were being painted as thieves and frauds.
But Haifeng didn't panic.
He wasn't new to this game.
He'd seen smear tactics before—and he knew what came next:
You let them talk. Then you drop the truth.
And when you do?
Make sure it burns.