The dispute between two companies both claiming to be Costco in China was already complicated enough. Then investigators started pulling on a single thread: a man named Pi Shengchuan.
Pi's name appears as the registered contact for the New York-incorporated parent company behind Costco Beijing International Business Development Ltd. — the entity incorporated on April 16, 2026 that has sued the official Costco operator in China for defamation and unfair competition. When Lanjing News tracked Pi down, his answer was simple: he had already left, a week before the story broke, for personal reasons. The dispute had nothing to do with him. "Two brothers fighting — nothing to do with me."
But the paper trail tells a more complicated story.
Costco Beijing's Parent Company Registered to a New York Home Address
The official Costco operation in China — Costco (China) Investment Ltd. — is a wholly owned subsidiary of Costco Wholesale International, registered in Nevada, and is widely recognized as the legitimate China arm of the US-based retailer. It currently operates seven warehouse stores: two in Shanghai, and one each in Suzhou, Ningbo, Hangzhou, Shenzhen, and Nanjing, with an eighth planned for Quanzhou. When Costco Beijing announced in April plans to invest $1.5 billion in building membership warehouses across six Chinese cities, the official operator issued a swift public warning: any unauthorized use of the Costco trademark constituted a serious infringement of its rights.
The New York parent company behind Costco Beijing was registered on March 26, 2026, listing Pi as its legal contact — and its registered address maps to an ordinary private residence on Google Maps.
Pi acknowledged to Lanjing News that he had served as a director of the New York company, handling early site-scouting and China market research. He says he finished work at the end of March and formally resigned on April 17. He added an unverified claim: that the actual owner of the New York company is a son of Costco co-founder Jim Sinegal, with offices in Manhattan, and that the company's shareholders also hold stakes in Costco Wholesale.
A further anomaly emerged when reporters called the customer service hotline listed on Costco Beijing's official WeChat account. A staff member surnamed Zeng told Jiemian News the firm has no equity relationship with Costco China and that both sides operate separately. But when Lanjing News checked the mobile number Zeng provided against Alipay's real-name verification system, the account appeared to belong to someone whose name closely matched Pi's own.
Fake Costco Stores, Disavowed Bank Names, and a One-Letter Logo Misspelling
Pi's name had already surfaced in earlier Costco-adjacent controversies. A real estate source in Chongqing told Lanjing News that a person matching Pi's name had visited their offices presenting himself as a senior executive of "Costco Commercial Retail (Chongqing) Co.," seeking a site for a large warehouse supermarket. The materials he showed included a business license, a bulk-purchase agreement bearing the Costco logo, and a branded market research report.
The logo on the project's registered artwork certificates read "COCTCO" — a one-letter deviation from the official brand — while the proposed store was called "Kaike Warehouse Supermarket." Pi denies any involvement with that Chongqing entity. He does, however, acknowledge making bulk purchases from Costco's official Shenzhen operation through a company called "HSBC Standard Chartered Group (Shenzhen)," which he then resold through non-physical retail channels.
That company name is itself striking. Standard Chartered Bank issued two separate statements denying any business relationship with "HSBC Standard Chartered Group (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd." In July 2025, China Resources Building Materials Technology also published a notice warning that an entity was fraudulently impersonating one of its subsidiaries — and directors named in that warning were connected to Pi's corporate network.
The Corporate Network Behind China's Phantom Costco Ventures
Public records reveal a cluster of overlapping entities built around a handful of recurring names. According to Lanjing News, Pi currently holds positions at 14 companies spanning retail, real estate, import-export, and financial investment — several of which have been ordered to suspend operations, had their licenses revoked, or are flagged as operationally abnormal. At least one supplier told the publication that payment disputes from earlier supermarket ventures involving Pi's associates remain unresolved.
The Chongqing "COCTCO" project never opened. But a related company — HSBC Standard Chartered Group (Shenzhen), later renamed — did open a supermarket called Kunpeng Premium in Chongqing's Yongchuan district in September 2025, displaying the Costco logo on its storefront and selling products marketed as identical to those carried by Costco, Sam's Club, and Pang Donglai. Its lease was terminated in January 2026, with the mall operator issuing a public notice urging consumers to check their stored-value cards and suppliers to secure outstanding payments.
Lawsuit Filed in Shanghai as Trademark Dispute Heads to Court
Costco Beijing filed a civil lawsuit on April 23 with the People's Court of Pudong New Area in Shanghai, alleging reputation infringement, unfair competition, and intellectual property violations. The court accepted the filing for review.
A Shanghai-based intellectual property lawyer told Jiemian News that the partial authorization documentation Costco Beijing has produced is insufficient to establish a valid trademark licence, leaving the legal position unresolved. The official operator has not publicly commented on the litigation, though sources close to the company told Lanjing News it has already filed intellectual property complaints against Costco Beijing's WeChat content — currently listed by the platform as "under review."
For now, the Pudong court must untangle a dispute that is less about two competing retailers than about who gets to claim a globally recognized name — and how far that claim can stretch when the paperwork leads back to a residential apartment in New York.
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