The cuts are probably to show the insides of the bar so they know it's solid gold all the way through. Who knows if they're handing out fakes though, imo it's very likely.

you can commonly find tungstein cored gold bars at sites like alibaba.com for far cheaper than real ones.

they are aparently pretty much indistinguishable from real bars without special equipment.

aparently even some major banks found some in their inventories

Possibly demonstrating ductility? Classier than chewing on the damn thing.

Uncanny valley of yummy. It looks wrong but also like candy

Are they handing out fakes as well?

The Chinese are very good at this sort of thing.

Are they handing out fakes as well?

This is china we are talking about. Of course they are.