Zhong Shanshan

Zhong Shanshan
Born	1 12 1954 (age 72 years old (as of 2026) ) China
Occupation	businessman
Known for	Founder and chairman of Nongfu Spring; controlling shareholder of Wantai Biological Pharmacy
Education	Zhejiang Radio and Television University (per TRT World)

Chinese businessman; founder and chairman of the bottled-water and beverage company Nongfu Spring

Zhong Shanshan (born 1 December 1954) is a Chinese businessman, the founder and chairman of Nongfu Spring, China's largest bottled-water company, which listed its shares in Hong Kong in 2020. He also controls the diagnostics maker Wantai Biological Pharmacy.^[1]^[2] On 20 October 2026 the Forbes Real-Time Billionaires list ranked Zhong Shanshan 31st in the world, with an estimated net worth of US$61.08 billion; Forbes lists the source of wealth as Beverages, pharmaceuticals.^[1]^[3] In the annual World's Billionaires list published in 2026, Forbes had ranked Zhong Shanshan 27th, at US$68.1 billion.^[4]

Early life and education

Forbes gives his date of birth as 1 December 1954 and says he was born in Hangzhou. It reports that he left elementary school during the Cultural Revolution and later worked as a construction worker, a newspaper reporter and a beverage sales agent before starting his own business.^[1] TRT World reported that he left school in the fifth grade, when his parents were purged during the Cultural Revolution. As a teenager he was apprenticed to masons and carpenters. At 23 he entered Zhejiang Radio and Television University, and he then spent about five years as a reporter on a local newspaper.^[2]

Business career

According to TRT World, Zhong moved to the southern island province of Hainan and in the early 1990s tried several ventures, including a newspaper, mushroom farming and bottled-water distribution, before succeeding with health supplements in 1993.^[2] Nongfu Spring's 2020 listing document says the group dates from September 1996, when Zhong set up its predecessor, Xin'an River Yangshengtang Drinking Water Company, in Zhejiang province. Its first packaged water, "Nongfu Spring", drawn from the Thousand-Island Lake in Zhejiang, was launched in 1997. The company became a joint-stock company in 2001, and in 2015 it launched a natural mineral water sourced from Moya Spring on Changbai Mountain in Jilin.^[5]

Nongfu Spring filed its application to list in Hong Kong at the end of April 2020.^[6] TRT World reported that on its first trading day, in September 2020, the shares rose by as much as 85% after a US$1.1 billion offering that attracted record retail orders. It said Zhong owned 84% of Nongfu Spring, and that he also held 75% of Beijing Wantai Biological Pharmacy, whose shares had risen sharply after its listing in April 2020.^[2] Forbes says Wantai makes rapid diagnostic tests for infectious diseases including COVID-19, and that Zhong's son, Zhong Shuzi, is a non-executive director of Nongfu Spring.^[1]

Wealth

Forbes attributes his wealth to his holdings in Nongfu Spring and Wantai and gives the source as beverages and pharmaceuticals.^[1] CNN reported in March 2024 that a nationalist online campaign against Nongfu (see below) had cut about US$3 billion from the company's market value and about US$2 billion from Zhong's personal wealth since the end of February that year.^[7]

Wealth history

Forbes has included this entry in its annual World's Billionaires list in 8 of the editions from 2001 to 2026 checked for this profile, starting with 2019. The table gives the rank and estimated net worth in each annual list.^[4]^[1]

Forbes estimates by list year
Year	World's Billionaires rank	Net worth (US$ bn)
2019	1281	1.8
2020	1063	2.0
2021	13	68.9
2022	17	65.7
2023	15	68.0
2024	24	62.3
2025	26	57.7
2026	27	68.1

Philanthropy

No personal foundation or documented major personal gift by Zhong was found in the sources checked for this profile.

Political activity

No party, advisory-body or donation record for Zhong was found in the sources checked.

Controversies and legal issues

TRT World reported that in the 1990s Zhong sold supplements, including pills derived from turtle parts that were marketed as a treatment for erectile dysfunction, and that these later came under regulatory scrutiny.^[2]

In March 2024, after the death on 25 February of Zong Qinghou, founder of the rival drinks company Wahaha, Zhong and Nongfu Spring were attacked by Chinese online nationalists who accused him of a lack of patriotism.^[8]^[7] CNN reported that the attacks targeted designs on Nongfu packaging that critics said resembled Japanese imagery, the US citizenship of his son, and the presence of US fund managers such as Vanguard and BlackRock among the company's shareholders. It also reported that the calls for a boycott had alarmed state media outlets.^[7] Caixin noted that online claims about Zhong's past relationship with Wahaha had not been verified.^[9]

International and political links

This section uses the same ten headings for every profile in this series. Only specific, sourced actions are included; company-level and foundation-level actions are labelled as such. Where nothing was found, the entry reads "No documented involvement found in sources checked."