The boss of China's leader in the bottled water market – the country's wealthiest man – is facing a barrage of criticism from the Middle Kingdom's most virulent internet users. Attacks that used to be only aimed at foreign companies are becoming increasingly unrestrained. Nongfu Spring Founder Zhong Shanshan and his company are being blasted online for an iced green tea bottle design.
The label shows a traditional East Asian building, and some nationalists see the image of a Japanese temple, particularly in the bluish hue of the roof. They're criticizing this reference to an enemy country's culture. They also criticize the wish to make the product appear foreign, when, they say, patriots should be proud to consume Chinese products – something which they're doing more and more, as local brands move upmarket. No matter how hard the company tries to explain that the drawing actually refers to Chinese temples, the hardliners just won't listen.
In Jiangsu province, two 7-Eleven chain stores have put up posters explaining that they would no longer be distributing Nongfu water and other products, despite messages from the headquarters stating that they in no way supported this boycott. Internet users are filming themselves pouring Nongfu bottles into toilets.
The debate has since shifted to Zhong Shanshan and his family personally, particularly his son, Zhong Shuzi, who is said to be a US citizen. On Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, commentator Li Ji, with his 5.3 million followers, had no hesitation in declaring on Monday, March 11: "If he intends to maintain Nongfu Spring's interests, I would suggest that Zhong Shanshan persuade his son to renounce US citizenship (...). China-America relations are very unstable, with serious ideological antagonisms, and the US is imposing more and more unreasonable sanctions on Chinese companies."
Foreign companies targeting the Chinese market are already living in fear of being targeted by popular wrath, as the Carrefour hypermarkets were in 2008, following the agitated Olympic torch relay through France, ahead of the Beijing Summer Olympics, met with numerous protests.
Clothing chain H&M was also targeted in 2021 for announcing that it would stop sourcing cotton from the Xinjiang region, where the United Nations, international NGOs, and the foreign press had denounced the Uyghur minority's internment in re-education camps and use as forced labor.
While a decade of political tightening has silenced politically liberal circles in the country, nationalism can be expressed without restraint.
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