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"I hope I am an idealist." On the evening of August 10, CCTV's "Dialogue" program broadcast an in-depth interview with Nongfu Spring founder Zhong Shanshan under the title "Zhong Shanshan: Idealistic Madman". During the program, when the host Chen Weihong asked the guest of the interview, Nongfu Spring Co., Ltd. Chairman Zhong Shanshan, what label he would put on himself, Zhong Shanshan gave the above answer.

On August 10, CCTV's "Dialogue" program ran for an extra hour.The program broadcast an interview with Zhong Shanshan, chairman of Nongfu Spring Co., Ltd. It is reported that this may be the first time that the "Dialogue" program has interviewed an entrepreneur for an hour.

In a conversation with CCTV's famous host Chen Weihong, Zhong Shanshan explained the labels and public concerns such as "richest man", "cyberbullying", "traffic", "slow", "volume" and heir. Finally, when discussing what label he would put on himself, Zhong Shanshan ended the interview with the answer of "idealist".

Responding to "being attacked by the Internet"

Since the end of February, Nongfu Spring has continued to suffer from cyber violence on Internet platforms. Internet platforms have spawned the "evil" of traffic, and rumors and malicious interpretations of Zhong Shanshan and Nongfu Spring have become huge traffic anchors.

As the "richest man in water", Zhong Shanshan also attributes traffic to the logic of water: "Like water, Li Bing and his son took advantage of the situation in Dujiangyan. What was in the hearts of Li Bing and his son? I want this water to do good."

Zhong Shanshan quoted the story of Li Bing and his son who controlled the floods at Dujiangyan, saying, "If this traffic allows some people to have private purposes, or to make money, and use technology to exploit the weaknesses of human nature, and deliberately create traffic potential and conduct large-scale disordered network, it will be like a water dragon, and to a certain extent it will be destructive." Among them, the water army and platform algorithms have shown a strong destructive power.

Zhong Shanshan said that when this destructive flow prevents the truth from coming out in time, society will suffer tremendous pressure. So in this process, the law needs to act quickly and not intervene later after the damage has been done. He gave an example, saying that if Li Bing and his son waited until the Chengdu Plain was flooded before building the Dujiangyan, it would be too late.

Zhong Shanshan said: "I appreciate traffic and I am happy to accept it because I have time, but the time it takes for the truth to come out has put society under tremendous pressure. The law requires quick and timely action, and traffic should have a legal bottom line."

Traffic is like water, and needs to be directed like water management. Facing the online violence against himself, Zhong Shanshan also gave an answer with the attitude of an idealist:He cannot wash away the stigma on the Internet this time. "Let it be, the day will definitely come, just a little later. As long as I can hold on until the daybreak, many people would jump off the building before the daybreak, but I can hold on. The truth will definitely come, but it may be late."

Also respond to these hot topics

“It is said that Nongfu Spring may be passed on to the second generation of Americans, and it may not be a Chinese company in the future. Is this true?” In the program, Zhong Shanshan directly faced the sensitive issue of Nongfu Spring’s inheritance: “Nongfu Spring’s equity structure is very simple. It is not a Cayman Islands company. I must have considered the most important ownership issue very clearly. Nongfu Spring will always belong to China.”

Zhong Shanshan also refuted the rumor that "the richest man only donated 24,000 bottles": Nongfu Spring has delegated the power of disaster donations to its offices and distributors, and always has 1,000 boxes of water on hand for timely donations to disaster relief. 1,000 boxes are exactly 24,000 bottles of water, which was misinterpreted as the richest man being stingy.

Earlier, during the Gansu earthquake at the end of 2023, 24,000 bottles of drinking water from Nongfu Spring arrived at the resettlement site for disaster victims in Dahejia Town, Jishishan County, Linxia, ​​the worst-hit area of ​​the earthquake. Subsequently, the saying "the richest man who donated 24,000 bottles of water" fermented online.

Zhong Shanshan responded that the 24,000 bottles of water actually originated from Nongfu Spring’s system design. Nongfu Spring has set up a system to delegate the power of donating water to each region. Then each region further delegated the authority to donate 1,000 boxes to offices and distributors, and 1,000 boxes is 24,000 bottles.

Zhong Shanshan also revealed the reason for re-launching purified water: "If it weren't for this year's online controversy, I would never have produced purified water. Re-launching purified water is to give consumers the right to choose."

Zhong Shanshan said that he would not choose to make purified water before, because the purified water made from natural water and tap water at that time were different, and both could be tasted. The minerals in water need to be ingested for a long time, and the elderly should try to drink less water without minerals.

"I made a rough decision at that time that if the water was for my parents to drink, I would definitely not produce this water, so I announced that I would stop producing purified water and only make natural water." Zhong Shanshan said that if there had not been this online controversy, he would definitely not have made purified water.

The controlling shareholder launched a HK$2 billion share purchase plan

Currently, Nongfu Spring's stock price has fallen for three consecutive months. As of Friday's close, Nongfu Spring's Hong Kong stocks closed at HK$28.95, with a total market value of HK$325.6 billion.

Since February this year, Nongfu Spring has been caught up in a series of public opinion storms.

On February 25, Wahaha issued an obituary, announcing that the company's founder and chairman, Mr. Zong Qinghou, had passed away due to illness. While this triggered remembrance and remembrance from people from all walks of life, voices of "criticism" against Nongfu Spring quietly emerged.

The controversy is centered on the fact that Zhong Shanshan, the founder of Nongfu Spring, previously worked at Wahaha but was fired for suspected violations such as "rushing goods". When he entered the bottled water market, he used "natural water" as a marketing tool by devaluing "pure water" and praising "pure water", which led to a joint boycott by 69 pure water manufacturers including Wahaha.

Subsequently, some netizens posted articles questioning the packaging of Nongfu Spring's Oriental Leaf series of beverages, which was printed with images of what looked like Japanese buildings.

Negative public opinion also led to a reduction in the company's market value. In the short period of one week from March 1 to March 8 this year, Nongfu Spring's stock price fell by 6.53%, and its market value evaporated by HK$32.6 billion.

Last month, Nongfushan’s controlling shareholder launched a HK$2 billion share purchase plan.

On July 9, Hong Kong-listed Nongfu Spring announced that it had received a notice from its controlling shareholder Yangshengtang Co., Ltd. that based on its recognition of the company's value and confidence in the company's overall business development and growth potential in the future, Yangshengtang plans to acquire and increase its holdings of Nongfu Spring H shares in the open market with its own funds within approximately six months from the date of this announcement, with an estimated total amount not exceeding HK$2 billion.

As of now, Zhong Shanshan directly and indirectly holds 9.444 billion shares of Nongfu Spring through Yangshengtang, accounting for 83.98% of the total share capital.

Daily Economic News Comprehensive CCTV "Dialogue"

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