On the evening of May 20, Nongfu Spring released "Rumors and Truth About Nongfu Spring and Founder Zhong Sui since February 25" on the WeChat public account.
Nongfu Spring said that what is more important than traffic is the truth, which is based on the judgment of good and evil based on the facts themselves. Nongfu Spring has started the relevant work of reporting the case to the public security organs and filing a lawsuit with the people's court, and will investigate the legal responsibility of those who maliciously spread rumors.
In its statement, Nongfu Spring detailed 20 rumors and provided the truth one by one. These rumors include, but are not limited to, the relationship between Zhong and Wahaha, the motives for the establishment of Nongfu Spring, and the competitive relationship with Wahaha; Nongfu Spring's tax issues, water quality issues, and enterprise standard issues; Nongfu Spring's public welfare activities and external donations; Nongfu Spring's product packaging and water source problems; Zhong is concerned about his personal actions and remarks.
In the statement, Nongfu Spring clarified each rumor in detail and provided corresponding evidence and explanations.
In response to the controversy with Wahaha, in the statement, Nongfu Spring said that Zhong had never received a salary from Wahaha, and there was no dismissal for fleeing goods. The establishment of Nongfu Spring by Zhong is a completely temporary project, and it is not aimed at anyone or enterprise.
In 1996, Zhong Sui, who was in the health care products business, went to Qiandao Lake to inspect and acquire a century-old medicinal distillery, and had lunch by the Xin'an River at noon. After the meal, it will be arranged to find a suitable plot of land on the edge of the Xin'an River to prepare for the bottling plant.
In addition, since its establishment, Nongfu Spring has never had a single fine due to competition with Wahaha. Nongfu Spring has never hired a water army to frame Wahaha, never asked the store to ban Wahaha, and never lowered the price to crack down on Wahaha.
On Japan-related issues, Nongfu Spring said in the statement that its red bottle and water bottle cap uses the red of the Chinese national flag, which symbolizes national self-confidence. The so-called implication of the Japanese flag is a complete rumor. The Oriental Leaf Green Tea Label story is based on the history of Jingshan Temple in China, showcasing the cultural power of Chinese tea to influence the world. The stupa pattern on the label is a reference to the image of an ancient pagoda in the Southern Dynasties. The so-called flattery on other packaging is also false. In addition, most of the raw materials of Oriental leaves are domestic, and a small amount comes from Sri Lanka and other countries, and Japanese tea is not used.
Regarding Zhong's resignation as the legal representative, Nongfu Spring said in the statement that Zhejiang Nongfu Industrial Development Co., Ltd. is only a subsidiary of Nongfu Spring. Nongfu Spring submitted an application to the industry and commerce on February 23, 2024 to replace the legal representative of the subsidiary, which was approved on February 27, which is a normal personnel adjustment. The so-called "escape" and other statements are pure rumors. At present, Zhong is still the legal representative of Nongfu Spring Co., Ltd.
In addition, regarding water quality, Nongfu Spring cited an announcement from the Ministry of Ecology and Environment to prove that the water quality of its Danjiangkou water source is excellent. Regarding the issue of tax payment, Nongfu Spring announced that the full tax payment in 2023 will be 6.8 billion yuan, refuting the accusation of tax evasion.
Nongfu Spring emphasizes its social responsibility as a leading enterprise in the industry, and promises to be more strict with itself and provide better products and services for the society. At the same time, the company expressed its gratitude to netizens, media and self-media friends who supported the online violence incident. Nongfu Spring called on misguided netizens to take the initiative to delete the remarks and videos related to the rumors, so as to help clean up the online environment and maintain a healthy cyberspace.
Summary of rumors posted by Nongfu Spring on the WeChat public account:
Rumor 1: Zhong Sui is a dealer of Wahaha and has fleeing goods, and Zhong Sui was fired from Wahaha;
Truth: Zhong has never received a salary from Wahaha, and there is no such thing as being fired for fleeing goods.
Rumor 2: Zhong Sui founded Nongfu Spring for Wahaha, and En will take revenge, "The Farmer and the Snake";
Truth: Zhong's establishment of Nongfu Spring is a completely temporary head-to-head project, and it is not aimed at anyone or enterprise. In 1996, Zhong Sui, who was in the health care products business, went to Qiandao Lake to inspect and acquire a century-old medicinal distillery, and had lunch by the Xin'an River at noon. After the meal, it will be arranged to find a suitable plot of land on the edge of the Xin'an River to prepare for the bottling plant.
Rumor 3: Nongfu Spring was fined 200,000 yuan in 2000 for unfair competition with Wahaha;
Truth: Since its establishment, Nongfu Spring has never had a single fine due to competition with Wahaha.
Rumor 4: Nongfu Spring advertised acid-base physique and was named by CCTV on 3.15;
Truth: Nongfu Spring advertises that "drinking water containing mineral elements is usually weakly alkaline" and "water containing mineral elements is more suitable for long-term drinking". We have never published the theory of acid-base constitution, let alone been named by CCTV 3.15.
Myth 5: Nongfu Spring is not a Chinese company, registered in the Cayman Islands, controlled by foreign capital, and every bottle of Nongfu Spring bought will become a bullet fired by the United States against China;
Truth: Nongfu Spring Co., Ltd. (i.e. the entity of the listed company) is a limited liability company established and registered in Xihu District, Hangzhou, China, in accordance with the laws of the People's Republic of China. The competent authority of the enterprise is the Zhejiang Provincial Administration for Market Regulation. To date, there is not a single company registered in the Cayman Islands or controlled by foreign capital within Nongfu Spring and Yangshengtang Group.
Nongfu Spring was listed in Hong Kong in 2020. There is no foreign investment component before listing. After listing, the circulating part can be freely traded in the Hong Kong stock market, but the proportion is small. Nongfu Spring is a private enterprise in the People's Republic of China.
Rumor 6: Nongfu Spring evades taxes;
Truth: Since its establishment, Nongfu Spring has never evaded taxes. Paying taxes is an obligation of a business, not a means of publicity. Before 2024, Nongfu Spring will only disclose corporate income tax according to the requirements of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, but not the full amount of tax paid. Some self-media secretly changed the concept and compared the entire tax payment of a certain company, including corporate income tax, with Nongfu Spring's corporate income tax, and came to the erroneous inference that Nongfu Spring's tax payment ratio was low. This year, Nongfu Spring announced in its ESG bulletin that the full-caliber tax payment for 2023 will be 6.8 billion yuan.
Rumor 7: Nongfu Spring Danjiangkou water source is polluted and garbage is everywhere;
Truth: According to the 2021 environmental announcement of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment of the People's Republic of China, the water quality of Danjiangkou is excellent.
A media outlet that falsely reported that Danjiangkou was littered with garbage was shut down in 2014 for news blackmail and fake news. That year, the media wrote 19 reports in a row to smear Nongfu Spring, including water pollution.
The official website of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment: The Ministry of Ecology and Environment reported on the national surface water and ambient air quality in March and January-March
https://www.mee.gov.cn/xxgk2018/xxgk/xxgk15/202104/t20210417_829130.html
Jimu News: Shiyan unswervingly protects water, and the water quality of Danjiangkou Reservoir has reached the Class I standard
https://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1792295157099755427&wfr=spider&for=pc
Xinhua News Agency: A certain newspaper admits that journalistic blackmail violates journalistic ethics
https://china.huanqiu.com/article/9CaKrnJFD9e
Myth 8: Nongfu Spring's enterprise standard is not as good as the tap water standard;
Truth: The fake news originated from a fake news report in 2013, and the incident has been debunked through Nongfu Spring's press conference and state media.
Nongfu Spring bottles are marked with the enterprise standard Q/NFS 00018-2021. Enterprise standards are formulated on the basis of implementing national, local and industry standards. In a general sense, enterprise standards are higher than industry standards, industry standards are higher than national standards, and national standards are the most basic standards.
Nongfu Spring Natural Water Enterprise Standard is formulated on the basis of implementing GB 5749 "Sanitary Standard for Drinking Water" and GB 19298 "National Food Safety Standard for Packaged Drinking Water". The 28 indicators, including arsenic and cadmium, are stricter than the relevant national standards. None of the requirements are lower than those of the national standard.
Observer.com: Beijing Times reporter Li Bin was taken away by the police to report on the Nongfu Spring incident
https://m.guancha.cn/society/2014_04_10_221130_s.shtml
Zhejiang Provincial Department of Health Quality Supervision Bureau responded: Nongfu Spring spot check pass rate of 100%
https://www.gov.cn/jrzg/2013-05/09/content_2398732.htm
Rumor 9: Nongfu Spring does not do public welfare, and only donated 24,000 bottles of water for the Jishishan earthquake in Gansu;
Truth: As of the end of March 2024, the total social donations of Nongfu Spring and Yangshengtang Group exceeded 900 million yuan.
At 23:59 on December 18, 2023, after the 6.2-magnitude earthquake in Jishi Mountain, Gansu Province, employees and dealers in Nongfu Spring Ganqingning Region saw the news and immediately organized the allocation and transportation. Over the next five days, regional employees and distributors braved aftershocks to travel to the affected sites, delivering more than 200,000 bottles or barrels of water to the victims of the flooding.
Water is the most urgently needed relief material, and the delivery process is very difficult, and every time Nongfu Spring donations of disaster relief drinking water are delivered to the front line of the disaster area or the disaster site by employees at the risk of danger.
Rumor 10: donate 50 million to Japan and 100 million to Harvard University;
Truth: This news is a pure fabrication.
Rumor 11: Nongfu Spring spent money to hire a water army to smear Wahaha, Nongfu Spring banned stores from selling Wahaha, lowered prices and maliciously suppressed Wahaha;
Truth: Nongfu Spring has never hired a water army to frame Wahaha, never asked the store to ban Wahaha, and never lowered the price to crack down on Wahaha.
Myth 12: Nongfu Spring is beautiful, and the labels of red bottle water, oriental leaves, tea pies and other products promote Japanese culture;
Truth: Nongfu Spring Red Bottle Water Bottle Cap uses the red Chinese national flag, which symbolizes national self-confidence. The so-called implication of the Japanese flag is a complete rumor.
The Oriental Leaf Green Tea Label story is based on the history of Jingshan Temple in China, showcasing the cultural power of Chinese tea to influence the world. The stupa pattern on the label is a reference to the image of an ancient pagoda in the Southern Dynasties.
The so-called flattery on other packaging is also false.
Rumor 13: Nongfu Spring packaging materials are inferior and materials cut corners;
Truth: Nongfu Spring uses the same bottle ingredients as other beverage companies, using the same industry standards, the same quality requirements, and overlapping suppliers. The rumor-mongers deliberately used different combustion methods to subjectively induce the public to have the wrong impression that the quality of the bottled raw materials was different, causing harm to Nongfu Spring.
Myth 14: Nongfu Spring uses inferior reservoir surface water, Nongfu Spring is not mountain spring water;
Truth: Nongfu Spring currently has 12 major water sources, of which nine are spring-type water sources: Changbai Mountain in Jilin, Daxinganling in Mohe in Heilongjiang, Wuling Mountain in Guizhou, Wuyi Mountain in Fujian, Taibai Mountain in Shaanxi, Emei Mountain in Sichuan, Daming Mountain in Guangxi, Manas in Tianshan Mountain in Xinjiang, and Huangshan Mountain in Anhui; Three mountain lakes with deep water: Danjiangkou, Qiandao Lake, and Wanlv Lake. The above water sources are all high-quality natural water sources.
Rumor 15: Zhong Sui visited Japan on May Day, went to Japan to worship his ancestors, and immigrated to Japan;
Truth: For details, see the official statement "Black entrepreneurs have become the biggest traffic, and rumors have become the work of some Internet celebrities and big Vs" https://www.toutiao.com/article/7365743278635483675/?log_from=d7ac76b61b319_1715437343086
Rumor 16: Nongfu Spring uses Japanese nuclear-contaminated tea raw materials;
Truth: Most of the raw materials of Oriental leaves are domestic, and a small amount comes from Sri Lanka, etc., and Japanese tea is not used.
Myth 17: Nongfu Spring transports Japan's nuclear waste/sewage;
Truth: All water sources of Nongfu Spring are high-quality natural water sources in China.
Myth 18: 1588 on the label refers to the year when Toyotomi Hideyoshi unified Japan;
Truth: The number 1588 on the bottle of Changbai Snow represents "as many as 1588 species of wild animals living in the Changbai Mountain area", and the data comes from the official website of the Baishan Municipal People's Government and the Changbai Mountain Management Committee, which has nothing to do with Japan.
Rumor 19: There are insect eggs in the spring water of Nongfu Mountain;
Truth: Nongfu Spring's production process is continuous production, all raw water is strictly filtered and sterilized, and the packaging containers are also strictly sterilized, so it is impossible for insect eggs to enter the production and manufacturing process. This incident is old news in 2021, a typical old news stir-up. The first media has already deleted the relevant reports.
Rumor 20: Zhong Sui stepped down as the legal representative and ran away;
Truth: Zhejiang Nongfu Industrial Development Co., Ltd. is just a subsidiary of Nongfu Spring. Nongfu Spring submitted an application to the industry and commerce on February 23, 2024 to replace the legal representative of the subsidiary, which was approved on February 27, which is a normal personnel adjustment. The so-called "escape" and other statements are pure rumors. At present, Zhong is still the legal representative of Nongfu Spring Co., Ltd.
Source | Securities Times, Nongfu Spring WeChat public account