WaHaHa, DHL

Recently, WaHaHa Group 杭州娃哈哈集团有限公司, China’s leading beverage company is in the news, due to the fight for inhritance 遗产争夺战, after the founder Zong Qinghou 宗庆后 (1945-2024) died last Februrary, who founded WHH in 1987. Zong had very little education due to poverty, becoming China’s richest man in 2010, per Forbes.

• 吴晓波: 宗先生的布鞋破了

I thought of DHL’s Larry Hillblom (1943-95), who never married, but sired a few kids during his ‘sex safari‘ in SE Asian – he loved virgins. After his disappearance in 1995 when his small plane (he was the pilot) went missing, many women came forward, claiming Hillblom fathered theirs. Four impoverished children received $90m each after DNA testing.

我想起了DHL的拉里·希尔布洛姆(1943-1995), 他终身未婚, 但在东南亚的“性之旅”中生了几个孩子——他喜欢处女.1995年,他驾驶的小型飞机失踪后, 许多女性站出来声称他是她们孩子的父亲. 四个贫困儿童在DNA检测后,每人获得了$9000万美元.

The US  changed its law (from 1868) in the 1960s and 1970s, to provide children born out of wedlock with equal rights.

美国在 20 世纪 60 年代和 70 年代修改了1868 年法律, 为非婚生子女提供平等的权利. 

Below is a WeChat post writen by a friend LSQ:

2025.7.20
目前网上WHH的遗产案件比较火。各种观点铺天盖地。本来不想说什么，但觉得这个案例很复杂且很典型，可以从多个维度来讨论或观察。这个案例之所引起了那么大的关注，不仅仅是应为财富金额巨大。更关键的是这个案例涉及到了财富、伦理、法律以及所有制等诸多方面的问题。因时间有限，这里不展开详述，仅罗列几点供大家讨论。
1）如何看待继承权的问题。非婚生子女有否与婚生子女同等继承权？
2）如何看待遗嘱的法律约束力。对故去的人所立遗嘱要不要绝对执行？什么条件下能够变更？谁来决定？
3）当事人的国籍对于继承权有没有影响？
4）财富的跨国转移与继承以什么法律为准？争议的仲裁在国际还是国内？
5）这个案件提出了有关混合所有制理论与实践中更深层次的问题。
所以，个人觉得这个案例的结果，一定会对将来的类似案件具有现实的指导意义。

A timeline of Zong Qinghou and WHH:

• ¹⁹⁴⁵ born in Zhejiang
• ¹⁹⁸⁷ RMB140,000, loan to produce milk drinks for distribution
• ¹⁹⁸⁰ +Shi Youzhen 施幼珍
• ^1982.1 Fuli (Kelly) Zong 宗馥莉
• ^{before 1989} Du Jianying 杜建英 (1966-)
• ¹⁹⁸⁹ Jacky Zong 宗继昌 born in LA
• ¹⁹⁹⁶ +Danone, who held 51%
• ¹⁹⁹⁸  Zong 宗婕莉
• ²⁰⁰⁶  Zong reneged on a deal with Danone
• ²⁰⁰⁸ US green card caused his image to suffer
• ²⁰⁰⁹ Danone exited the joint venture, est $500m for 51%
• ²⁰¹⁰ China’s richest man by Forbes
• ^{2017, Du was 51 y/o} son 宗继盛
• ²⁰²³ $5.9b by Forebes Zong’s fortune
• ^{2024.2.25, 78} died in Hangzhou