Zong Qinghou was China's richest man in 2010, 2012 and 2013, according to the Hurun China Rich List
AsianFin – For decades, Zong Qinghou, the late beverage tycoon and China’s richest person for years, had been a revered role model: a family man faithful to his wife from the days of his humble beginnings, a feminist who eventually handed his entire business empire to his only daughter, and a super thrifty gentleman who wore a pair of no-name shoes made of cotton cloth and traveled on a second-class train. Such an image lasted until over a year after his funeral in February 2025, which triggered a nation-wide online mourning of the “patriotic” businessman.
Two separate lawsuits are unfolding in courtrooms in Hong Kong, where a trust fund’s executor HSBS is headquartered, and Hangzhou, the headquarters of Wahaha, one of China’s two largest beverage conglomerates, shedding a light on the magnate’s double life and a $2 billion inheritance feud initiated by his three hidden extramarital kids.
The legal battle pits three plaintiffs who claim they are children of Wahaha Group’s founder Zong and their mother, the company’s once No. 2 figure, against their half-sibling Kelly Zong, the heiress of the beverage company. They are seeking an injunction preventing her from withdrawing money from the $1.7 billion trust fund account at HSBC. They argued that the money was promised to them by their late father.
The three plaintiffs — Jacky, Jessie and Jerry Zong — were revealed in court documents as Kelly’s “half brothers and sister” for the first time, shocking hundreds of millions of Chinese netizens.
Upon the death of Qinghou at the age of 79 in February 2024, Kelly, 42, took over the beverage group, of which local state-owned assets authorities 49%, after a gambit by quitting as the general manager.
The plaintiffs are demanding that Kelly honor their father’s will, pay millions in interest on their assets, and compensate them for losses incurred from the transfer of $1.15 million from their trust fund.
They are also seeking to stop Kelly from accessing the assets in the HSBC account that had about $1.8 billion in balance as of early 2024, their lawyer said
Kelly’s lawyer said she doesn’t accept the evidence and that Qinghou’s directives were not given to her. Instead, Kelly has a will from her father that all of Qinghou’s overseas assets shall belong to her.
Judge Gary Lam in Hong Kong said he was concerned that his order could interfere with the Hangzhou case, adding that he would hand down a ruling in about two months.
His Lily-white Reputation and Hidden Kids of Various Mothers
Zong’s rags-to-riches legend had amazed and inspired many Chinese, making him a household name across China and the public face of the beverage behemoth. He had lived in poverty as his mother was only source of income for his family as a primary school teacher and his father was unemployed due to his work experience with the KMT government. At the age of 42, he founded Wahaha, a public school-affiliated popsicle workshop, in 1987. Later, the nominally collectively-owned company developed a milky nutrition drink, and next grown into an empire of bottled water, tea and fruit juices. Zong was China’s richest person in 2010, 2012 and 2013, according to the Hurun China Rich List. The Zong family has accumulated a fortune of at least $3.3 billion, according to Bloomberg.
Kelly, his oldest child and the iron woman in charge of the company now, had long touted him as a doting father and a loyal husband in China’s traditional and social media media, making some consumers feeling connected to the company and willing to buy their products. Kelly, who went to California, the United States for education at the age of 14 and returned to China upon acquiring a bachelor’s degree from Pepperdine University after eight years, was the head of the company’s public relations department for years. The father and the daughter appeared in the TV talk shows as a duo, talking about their management approaches, parenting and family business succession. In the shows, Kelly showed zero interest in working the United States. She was depicted as a strong and decisive business woman and the only kid of Qinghou by her own communications team.
In a TV interview on Wahaha’s lawsuit against French beverage giant Danone, Zong downplayed his connections with the United States. “My daughter studied eight years in the United States and accordingly acquired the status of residence in the country. Other than that, I don’t have any other connection with the U.S.,” he said. The Chinese court ruled the trademark Wahaha belonged to Zong Qinghou’s firm, even after Danone had paid 4 billion yuan (about $600 million) for it. By playing the card of patriotism or actually nationalism in the media, Zong kicked the French company out of the joint venture between them in 2007.
Furthermore, Qinghou was widely liked many people residing on the Main Street allegedly due to his high moral standards: not divorcing his start-up wife to have boys when China’s one-child policy was implemented from the 1980s to the 2010s. Having a boy to inherit his family name and possibly a fortune was an ultimate obsession to many Chinese guys born in the 1940s,after all. Zong was born in October 1945, about four years before the founding of the People’s Republic of China.
However, the existence of Qinghou’s other kids was not a secret to his family and the company. Liu Yang, a person close to the Zong family, told ifeng.com, a Hong Kong-based website, that six other kids were confirmed in 2018, when a chronology of Qinghou’s late father was drafted. The chronology is a tradition in China, recording a person’s major life events, children and grandchildren. The chronology explicitly reads that there are six other children in addition to Kelly. In 2009, Qinghou’s father attempted to include Jack into the family records, but did not do so for fearing that move may tarnish the public image of the Wahaha founder.
Liu also said Jacky (born in 1996), Jessie (vorn in 1998) and Jerry were born to Du Jianying, the “shadow wife” of Qinghou. Du joined Wahaha in the early 1990s and was one of first university graduates of the firm. Du, a graduate of China’s prestigious elite Zhejiang University, played a critical role in the rise of Wahaha. Jacky’s Chinese name Jichang literally means “succession and prosperity” and Jerry’s Chinese name Jisheng means “succession and boom.”
Liu also said the online rumour that Jerry was born in 2017 to a household maid in Zong’s $25 million mansion in California was false. The mother of the kid born in 2017 was a young employee of Wahaha. Many netizens noted that this child was born when Qinghou was already 72 years old. The mother, disgruntled with the compensation Zong offered, protested in front of the head office in Hangzhou. Wahaha management sent internal emails to employees, urging them to stay away from the woman.
Two kids were still not unknown to the public, according to Zhang Yong, a person familiar with the family. Zhang believed that Qinghou was generous to his employees and thus his two other extramarital kids must have received reasonable amounts of money. Zhang revealed that Qinghou had an affair with a former employee that led to the birth of a kid before the birth of Du’s three kids, who are fighting for their share of inheritance in Hong Kong and Hangzhou now. That kid and his/her mother went to the United States after Du became the mistress of Qinghou.
A Grumpy and Tough Heiress
Wang Qing, a person who is familiar with the family feud, told ifeng.com that Zong Qinghou divorced his wife Shi Youzhen, also the mother of Kerry, around 2000, which is known to few people. Qinghou married Du in 2005 but divorced her later due to Kerry’s resentment after she began to work in Wahaha after returning from the United States. “I cannot recall when Qinghou divorced Du but their divorce was related to Kerry’s strong opposition,” said Wang.
An employee of Wahaha said that Kerry’s mother worked at Qiutao Production Base as Director of Supplies, four kilometers away from Du’s office in the headquarters. “The distance served as a buffer zone between them,”said the employee.
Qinghou’s parents or Kelly’s grandparents like their grandsons more given traditional Chinese favor boys over girls, according to Zhang. At the funeral of Qinghou’s father, Du and his children appeared but Kerry refused to show up, which annoyed Qinghou. Wang said Qinghou was very kind to his daughter. Kerry was taken care of by her mother’s sister and brother-in-law as her own parents were busy with the development of Wahaha. Qinghou offered Kerry’s uncle-in-law a senior manager role in the office until his retirement. “Nobody in Wahaha dared to mess with the couple,” said Wang.
“Kerry called me uncle when she was a little girl, but she never called me uncle after her overseas education,” said Zhang, adding that she only nodded her head. He noted that Kerry’s personality changed. “She is like a princess. She is cold-hearted,” Zhang said.
Liu said Qinghou was determined and rarely changed his mind once a decision was made. However, Kerry had hunger strikes repeatedly when negotiating with her father over her own interests. Persons around Kerry saw her almost collapsing during a hunger strike. In the spring of 2023, Qinghou and his daughter had a big fight over his will. “A cellphone was smashed during the quarrel,” said Liu.
Zhang also heard of the dispute as well. He said Kerry’s personality is bizarre. “She often changed her driver, caregiver and cleaners. There is a security camera on the fridge,” said Zhang.
