Chinese bottled water giant Nongfu Spring under fire from nationalists

China’s online nationalists have found the latest target for their ire: Nongfu Spring, the Hangzhou-based bottled water and soft drinks giant whose founder, Zhong Shanshan, is the country’s wealthiest person.

Nongfu Spring’s Hong Kong shares fell for three consecutive days last week, wiping off about Rmb30bn ($4bn) in market cap as internet users heaped criticism on the company for, including other things, being “pro-Japan”.

This came in stark contrast to the praise lavished on its rival, Wahaha. Also based in Hangzhou, Wahaha was founded by the late Zong Qinghou, who also once topped China’s rich list.

After Zong died in late February, users on the social media platform Weibo started referring to him as a “down-to-earth and patriotic entrepreneur”, while Nongfu’s Zhong was slammed as an “ungrateful profit-oriented businessman”, with users citing reported tensions between the two companies in the past.

Critics are also taking aim at other aspects of Nongfu Spring, including the fact that Zhong’s son, Zhong Shuzi, is a US passport holder, a fact disclosed in the company’s 2020 prospectus.

The criticism did not stop there, as users accused Nongfu Spring of using a picture of a Japanese temple on its bottled tea labels. Some even connected a Greek character on one of its jasmine tea bottles to the shape of the entrance gate of the controversial Yasukuni Shrine.

The shrine commemorates Japan’s war dead as well as some class-A war criminals and is regarded by China and South Korea as a symbol of Japan’s past military aggression.

This article is from Nikkei Asia, a global publication with a uniquely Asian perspective on politics, the economy, business and international affairs. Our own correspondents and outside commentators from around the world share their views on Asia, while our Asia300 section provides in-depth coverage of 300 of the biggest and fastest-growing listed companies from 11 economies outside Japan.

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Others said the red, round bottle cap of Nongfu Spring bottled water represented the Japanese flag — if held up against a piece of white paper.

Amid the backlash, users on Chinese short video platforms have been posting videos of them pouring Nongfu Spring into the toilet or dumping unopened water bottles into rubbish bins.

On Sunday two 7-Eleven stores in the eastern city of Changzhou in Jiangsu province told Chinese media they had removed all Nongfu Spring products from their shelves, with a “special notice” put up saying: “We sell products from all over the world . . . but we don’t sell products from companies that adulate Japan.”

Luwei Rose Luqiu, an associate professor at Hong Kong Baptist University, said such online flare-ups were not uncommon.

“Nationalism is a profitable business in China,” she said. “Interference with personal lives and business activities by accusing individuals of being pro-Japan is prevalent in China, and this shows there is a general fondness for such content on Chinese social media, which is in line with the official propaganda lines.”

Last year China’s legislative body proposed jailing individuals for up to 15 days if they said things or wore clothes in public that “hurt the feelings of Chinese people”. The proposal is still under review but has received strong opposition from legal experts.

Nongfu Spring and Seven & i Holdings, 7-Eleven’s parent company, did not respond to requests for comment. Shares of Nongfu Spring fell as much as 1.4 per cent on Tuesday in Hong Kong.

This is not the first time a Chinese company has suffered a backlash from nationalists.

Huawei, a national champion and symbol of China’s ambitions in the tech sector amid tensions with the US, was recently slammed by nationalists for naming its chipset “Kirin”, the Japanese pronunciation of the word for a mythical creature.

This month Chinese writer and Nobel laureate Mo Yan was attacked by nationalists on Weibo and accused of smearing China in his books. Far from being a dissident, Mo was a member of the country’s top political advisory body.

One Weibo user even made a failed attempt last month to sue him, demanding Mo pay Rmb1 to each Chinese person for hurting their feelings by “insulting the People’s Liberation Army, the late chair Mao Zedong and the Chinese people”.

A version of this article was first published by Nikkei Asia on March 11. ©2024 Nikkei Inc. All rights reserved.

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