Zong Qinghou

Zong served as a delegate to the Chinese National People's Congress from 2002 to 2018.

Zong was married to Shi Youzhen (施幼珍), and they had one child, a daughter, Fuli (Kelly) Zong (宗馥莉). Shi was purchasing manager at Wahaha. Zong once held permanent resident status in the United States, which he had obtained to make it easier for him to travel to the country and look after his investments there. His daughter attended Pepperdine University in Southern California and was naturalized as a U.S. citizen, but later moved back to China and in 2007 began the procedure to renounce her U.S. citizenship. Zong gained wide support as he played the role of "David" against a French "Goliath" gobbling up Chinese companies. However, with the revelation of his green card in 2008, public perceptions changed and his reputation suffered. In 2013, he stated that because he did not re-enter the U.S. for several years, his status was thus deemed abandoned.

Zong stated that he lived on less than $6,000 per year, attributing his thriftiness to the teachings of Mao Zedong. Zong also emphasized cost-cutting measures in his approach to business, describing cost control as a key element in Wahaha's operations.But this is all a facade and when he died in 2024, it was revealed that he had a second secret family (including 3 children) and real estates abroad, including the United States.

Zong Qinghou died on 25 February 2024, at the age of 78.

Tax evasion allegations

Zong claimed to have been paid a salary of €3,000 and €100,000 annual allowances plus a bonus worth 1% of the annual profit of the joint ventures, totaling 70 million yuan of income every year.

Caijing reported in April 2008 that Zong was being investigated for allegedly evading taxes amounting to some ¥ 300 million. An investigator had alleged that Zong "...earned far more than this and hasn't fully reported the tax for years". Caijing implied there may have been less than transparent payments through a web of Hong Kong-registered accounts of Zong, Shi, daughter Fuli, and the former Party secretary of Wahaha, Du Jianying. Zong had apparently paid more than 200 million yuan in back taxes in October 2007, after the investigation kicked off. However, the magazine suspected Zong still owed millions more.