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Opinion | Why Nongfu Spring’s online attackers are no Chinese patriots
- Claims of Nongfu Spring being pro-Japanese are risible and attacks on the drinks company and its founder Zhong Shanshan only damage the country and its economy
- As a success story of Chinese private entrepreneurship, the company should be celebrated, not pilloried
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Zhong Shanshan, China’s bottled water king, remains the richest man in China, according to the Hurun Global Rich List 2024. But few people in China, it seems, are in the mood for congratulations.
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The rich list came out last month, right after Zhong, the founder of Nongfu Spring, found himself caught in the eye of an internet storm. A large number of nationalist internet users in China had attacked him, accusing his firm of, among other things, having pictures of Japanese religious buildings on its packaging. A boycott followed and the company’s Hong Kong-listed shares lost as much as 8 per cent last month, though have since recovered.
I am not surprised that few Chinese internet users are happy for Zhong; as some have put it, what has Zhong’s status as China’s richest man got to do with them? It is also understandable that, with China’s economy struggling, people find themselves unable to muster much sympathy for Zhong – his immense wealth is estimated at US$63 billion.
The rich are so widely despised in China that there is even a term chou fu – resenting or hating the rich – to describe the feeling. Many believe the rich obtain their wealth through unfair means, such as personal connections or corruption.
But I believe attacking Zhong or boycotting his products is unreasonable and unwise. It is a move that is bad for China’s economy and the attackers themselves.
Zhong’s “rags to riches” story is inspiring. In 1996, he established his company, a private firm, in his hometown of Hangzhou. It slowly grew to be the largest bottled water company in China. In 2020, the company went public on the Hong Kong stock exchange, which suddenly made Zhong extremely rich.
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