The presumed children of Zong Qinghou, founder of the beverage giant Wahaha who died in February 2024 at the age of 79, have scored an initial victory. On Friday, August 1, the Hong Kong Supreme Court ruled in favor of the three plaintiffs by ordering the freezing of an HSBC account containing $1.8 billion (€1.55 billion), recognizing their rights as presumed beneficiaries of this capital.

The plaintiffs claim to be the unacknowledged children from a decades-long secret relationship between the late billionaire and his mistress, Du Jianying, a former Wahaha employee. The case pits them against Zong Fuli, 43 (also known as Kelly Zong), the legitimate daughter of Zong Qinghou and current CEO of Wahaha.

The three plaintiffs, two men and one woman, assert that the businessman, an industrial icon in China during the 2000s, promised a month before his death, through a brief handwritten note, to create three offshore trusts to distribute the money evenly. The Hong Kong court ruled in their favor, freezing the Hong Kong account of a British Virgin Islands-based holding company, first managed by Zong Qinghou and then by his legitimate daughter, which was intended to fund these trusts.

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