Click to read the original article for details. 1996 was the peak year for Jianlibao's sales. That year, Jianlibao's sales reached 700,000 tons, while Pepsi-Cola only sold 500,000 tons. Jianlibao's collapse began with the Jianlibao Youth Team. From its establishment in 1993 to its disbandment in 1998, Jianlibao invested nearly 10 million yuan in this team over five years, but the only result was that football fans learned that Jianlibao had sent batches of players to Chinese football. This caused Jianlibao to suffer heavy losses on paper. 35 Kilometers of Flags and a 10 Million Yuan Patent Fee In 1991, on a long-distance bus shuttling between towns, a scam was unfolding. The scam was simple: a swindler suddenly claimed that he had opened a can of Jianlibao that won a 50,000 yuan grand prize, and then sold the pull tab to innocent passengers who were greedy for small gains. When passengers discovered the tab was fake, the swindler had already disappeared. In fact, this was a scam that had swept the country. Swindlers performed it tirelessly on long-distance buses traveling between villages and towns. Even into the 21st century, this almost skill-less scam was still being played out in urban and rural areas across the country. According to statistics from public security organs, reports of such cases continued until 2000. According to Jianlibao Group's internal publication "Jianlibao News," people came to the headquarters to redeem prizes with fake winning tabs in an endless stream, sometimes dozens per day, all claiming the 50,000 yuan first prize. "Everyone was like possessed, crying, cursing, making a scene, sitting in silence... They turned the prize redemption office into a noisy and restless place..." Jianlibao advertisement This scam originated from an imaginative idea by Jianlibao founder Li Jingwei: any consumer who bought Jianlibao and pulled out a tab with a special pattern could win a 50,000 yuan cash prize. Li Jingwei claimed that he would invest millions of yuan annually in this tab game. Initially, the investment was 2 million yuan per year, but by 1994, this figure had risen to 8 million yuan. That year, Jianlibao's annual sales reached 1.8 billion yuan, and there was no rival in sight nationwide. In the same year, to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Jianlibao's founding, Li Jingwei booked all the five-star hotels in Guangzhou and hosted a grand banquet. The roads from Guangzhou to Sanshui County, where Jianlibao originated, were lined with red flags for a full 35 kilometers. 1994 was the peak period for Jianlibao. It was also the first time Li Jingwei faced a challenge since starting his business 10 years earlier. This challenge was brewing at the end of 1993. On November 14, 1993, Jianlibao, which was ready to make a move, selected 22 young players born in 1977 and 1978 from across the country and sent them to Brazil for youth training. Rong Yiren, then honorary chairman of the Chinese Football Association, wrote an inscription for the team: "We must cultivate football players with high moral standards, good psychological quality, modern technical and tactical levels, and the courage to fight bravely and tenaciously!" In Brazil, including visits to football powerhouses like Argentina, Uruguay, and Chile, the team played a total of 165 matches, nearly 40 of which were tough battles. The number of matches was equivalent to five years of domestic play. Their record was 110 wins, 25 draws, and 30 losses. The fate of these players rose and fell with the tide of Chinese football, just like Jianlibao. Li Jingwei talking with Li Tie and Li Jinyu, who came from the Jianlibao youth team. @Visual China In December 1993, He Boquan, a Cantonese businessman who had dropped out of school at 15 to work, smelled money. He flew to Shenyang and tried every means to meet Ma Junren, then coach of the Liaoning Provincial Track and Field Team's middle and long-distance running group. "I must see Ma Junren. If he is in Dalian, I'll fly to Dalian; if he is in Anshan, I'll fly to Anshan." At that time, He Boquan was the chairman of Guangdong Today Group, whose core asset was a beverage factory in Zhongshan, mainly producing a children's yogurt drink called "Lebai Shi Milk." At the 7th National Games in July 1993, Ma Junren led the Liaoning Provincial Track and Field Team to break world records consecutively and won 22 gold medals. At that time, it was widely rumored in Liaoning sports circles that the world records were in the pocket of Ma Junren, the coach of the Ma Family Army. Whenever he said they would be broken, they would be broken, and in batches. Ma Junren attending the wedding of his disciple Wang Junxia @Visual China "Every midnight, Ma Junren quietly got up, fiddled in the kitchen for a long time, and brewed a pot of soup. At 6:30 in the morning, the girls arrived at Coach Ma's home on time, each drank a bowl of hot soup, then turned around and ran to the playground, running lap after lap tirelessly..." Rumors were rife, and He Boquan smelled money. He decided to go to Shenyang in person to meet Ma Junren. Ma Junren was a long-distance running coach, but He Boquan insisted on challenging him to a 100-meter sprint. "You want to buy my secret recipe for 10 million yuan? No, no!" Ma Junren's attitude was clear. He Boquan persuaded him, "Your nutritional formula is worth 10 million, and we are willing to pay that price. As for what you do with the 10 million, you have full autonomy. Even if you put it all in your pocket, as long as you pay taxes, it's legitimate. If you use it to build a training center, you are sponsoring the country." Within less than 24 hours, Ma Junren and He Boquan signed a contract. During the negotiations, they also decided on the name of the secret formula: "Life Energy." On January 19, 1994, at the China Hotel in Guangzhou, He Boquan held up a large check for 10 million yuan and exchanged it with Ma Junren for a large envelope containing the "Life Energy" secret formula. This was the most expensive intellectual property transaction in the country that year. Ma Junren and He Boquan exchanging the million-yuan check Amid applause and cheers, the "Life Energy" formula, insured for 200 million yuan, was locked in a dark green safe. A strong man carried it to a police car, which, under the escort of armed police, drove to the underground vault of the Bank of China Guangdong Branch. The three keys to open the dark green box in the vault were held by He Boquan, the president of the Bank of China Guangdong Branch, and the mayor of Zhongshan. Only when all three were present could it be opened. After obtaining the formula, He Boquan also put great effort into marketing. Auctions of distribution rights were held across the country. In Hunan, the winning bid was 500,000 yuan; in Shaanxi, it was 2 million; and in Jiangsu, it became 2.4 million—the fees kept rising, and after a few provinces, He Boquan had recovered the 10 million yuan patent fee paid to Ma Junren. Before "Life Energy" even went into production, similar products like Jianlibao were already extremely popular. The Brazilian football team, led by star Socrates, wore Jianlibao jerseys in competitions; the famous Harlem Globetrotters basketball team drank "Jianlibao" on the Great Wall; "Prince of Gymnastics" Li Ning and famous female scientist Jin Qingmin were invited to join Jianlibao as special assistants to the general manager; and "Go Master" Nie Weiping and "Table Tennis Queen" Deng Yaping were hired as senior advisors... At the same time, when production was tight, a note for obtaining Jianlibao products could be scalped for tens of thousands of yuan. Some people tried to get products through connections, but Li Jingwei was very tough on this matter. Even to his cousin who had contributed to Jianlibao, Li Jingwei said, "You can come and I'll treat you to a meal, but you can't get products from me." With rapid capital expansion, Li Jingwei bought an entire floor of the Empire State Building in New York as Jianlibao's office in the United States. But for Li Jingwei, the small Sanshui County could no longer contain the huge Jianlibao. He had to go to Guangzhou; on the other hand, He Boquan, who had been content in Zhongshan, also set his sights on Guangzhou. Neither of them knew what going to Guangzhou would mean for them and their companies. Whose Jianlibao, Whose Lebaishi? Li Jingwei wanted to build a 38-story building in Guangzhou, which was also the direct cause of his falling out with Sanshui County. The biggest issue was, of course, funding. According to Southern Weekly, the building's total planned investment was over 1 billion yuan, and the actual investment was over 800 million, while Jianlibao's sales in 1996 had just exceeded 5 billion yuan, with profits and taxes less than 500 million. Insiders said, "This almost drained Jianlibao's working capital, and at one point, they couldn't even pay employee wages." The Jianlibao Building, built under Li Jingwei's direction, was renamed Times Property Center Building after being acquired by Times Property in 2008. 1996 was the peak year for Jianlibao's sales. That year, Jianlibao's sales reached 700,000 tons, while Pepsi-Cola only sold 500,000 tons. But Li Jingwei diverted a large amount of funds to the construction of the Jianlibao Building, which undoubtedly made it more difficult to invest more in the market to counter the siege of Coca-Cola and Pepsi. Then the Asian financial crisis broke out, and Jianlibao's market share was gradually squeezed. The Jianlibao Building was completed in 1997, and it was also from 1997 that Jianlibao's sales began to decline at a rate of 70,000 to 80,000 tons per year. That year, Lebaishi's revenue growth rate was as high as 85.3%. However, He Boquan's days were not easy either; his pressure came from Zong Qinghou in Hangzhou and his Wahaha. Although Wahaha started later in the lactic acid bacteria beverage market, Zong Qinghou's strategy of encircling cities from rural areas eventually allowed Wahaha to surpass Lebaishi. Jianlibao's collapse began with the Jianlibao Youth Team. From its establishment in 1993 to its disbandment in 1998, Jianlibao invested nearly 10 million yuan in this team over five years, but the only result was that football fans learned that Jianlibao had sent batches of players to Chinese football. This caused Jianlibao to suffer heavy losses on paper. The final reason for disbanding the team was the "unclear property rights" between the players and the club. This seemed to be a prophecy: Whose Jianlibao? This was the problem that lay between Li Jingwei and Sanshui County. Sanshui County was very poor, and Jianlibao alone contributed 40%-50% of the local tax revenue. The then county party secretary publicly said, "For every 100 yuan spent by Sanshui people, 46 yuan comes from Jianlibao." To keep this cash cow, Sanshui local government gave Jianlibao almost unconditional support: land when needed, policies when needed, and even the name of Sanshui was given new meaning: rice, cement, and "magic water." But after all, Jianlibao was a state-owned enterprise, and Li Jingwei was just a state-owned enterprise cadre with an administrative level of deputy division chief. As Jianlibao grew bigger, Li Jingwei was approaching retirement age, and time was running out for him. Li Jingwei had planned to list Jianlibao, with the slogan "When the building is completed, Jianlibao will go public." But Sanshui County did not give him this opportunity. Selling Jianlibao was already the consensus of Sanshui's main leaders, but they absolutely would not sell it to Li Jingwei. After the news of the sale was released, sharks came smelling blood. More than ten investment institutions, including French Danone, Morgan Stanley, HSBC Investment Fund, and Xinjiang Delong, rushed in. In January 2002, under the strong intervention of the Sanshui District Government, Jianlibao was not sold to Li Jingwei's team, which offered 450 million yuan, but to capital player Zhang Hai, who offered 338 million yuan. At the signing ceremony on January 15, Li Jingwei's eyes were moist, he choked up, sat in a corner, and his mood was unsettled for a long time. After losing Jianlibao, which he had worked on for 18 years, nine days later, Li Jingwei suffered a sudden cerebral hemorrhage and has been ill ever since. Unlike Li Jingwei, He Boquan, who was in his prime, had already been ousted from Lebaishi. In 2000, Danone invested 2.38 billion US dollars to acquire 92% of Lebaishi's shares, becoming the actual controller, while He Boquan and his partners held only 3%. In 1998, facing market decline, He Boquan made a crazy move: he paid 12 million yuan to hire international management consulting firm McKinsey to "take the pulse" of Lebaishi. However, McKinsey's 300-page report did not reverse Lebaishi's decline. Revenue growth continued to slide, and introducing foreign capital became He Boquan's last resort for self-rescue. In his own words, this was the first lesson of China's entry into the WTO. The relationship between Lebaishi and He Boquan was not as simple as it seemed. Before 1999, He Boquan was only a renter of the Lebaishi trademark, and the trademark owner was a state-owned enterprise in Guangzhou. He Boquan had been renting the trademark since 1989. For ten years, although the main Lebaishi products came from his company's production lines, he could not change his status as merely an "agent." It was not until 1999 that He Boquan finally bought out the Lebaishi trademark and obtained legitimate ownership, but the purchase price has never been disclosed. Bottled water world @Visual China He Boquan sold Lebaishi in March 2000, only half a year after he fully took control of Lebaishi. This also indirectly confirms that without the Lebaishi trademark, multinational companies would not have been interested in his assets. But this "marriage" still failed to help Lebaishi regain its former glory. In 2001, Lebaishi's sales remained at 1 billion yuan, while its old rival Wahaha's sales had exceeded 6 billion yuan. In November 2001, He Boquan and the four founders of Lebaishi collectively resigned. At the meeting announcing their resignation, He Boquan and his "comrades-in-arms" sang "Friends" hand in hand, bidding farewell to Lebaishi, where they had worked for 12 years. He Boquan's Glorious Turn, Li Jingwei's Lonely Death After leaving Lebaishi, He Boquan went to the United States to study. The outside world regarded him as a "tragic entrepreneur washed out by capital," but he told the media himself that although leaving Lebaishi damaged his reputation and even burdened him with the accusation of "destroying a national brand," "an enterprise is like a commodity, just like making a bottle of water. It is made to be converted into value. As for whether to sell it or not, whether to be reluctant or not, one should look at the value." Eight years later, in November 2009, He Boquan appeared in a suit at the New York Stock Exchange to ring the bell for the listing of 7 Days Inn, a hotel chain he had invested in. This was a project that made He Boquan famous. In 2004, after meeting with 7 Days founder Zheng Nanyan twice, He Boquan decided to invest 60 million yuan. Five years later, 7 Days Inn went public in the United States, and He Boquan's returns exceeded 3 billion yuan. After returning from studying in the United States, He Boquan founded Today Investment in 2003. He Boquan, who transformed from an entrepreneur to an investor, was quite low-key and rarely appeared in public, but many of his investment projects had built brands and even listed on the capital market. He Boquan as an angel investor He Boquan's first project as an angel investor was "Jiu Jiu Ya." After returning to China in 2003, He Boquan had a meal with Gu Qing, who had served as the general manager of Lebaishi's Wuhan company. Gu Qing told He Boquan that he had founded a duck neck shop called "Jiu Jiu Ya." After learning about the situation, He Boquan decided to invest 500,000 yuan in "Jiu Jiu Ya," with a shareholding second only to Gu Qing. In 2016, New Hope acquired "Jiu Jiu Ya" for 170 million yuan. Since then, He Boquan has invested in more than ten projects, including iKang Healthcare and Noah Holdings. In 2017, the trendy milk tea shop "Heytea," which was wildly popular among young people, also had He Boquan's shadow behind it. Compared to He Boquan, who was active in capital operations, Li Jingwei's later years were very lonely. The investigation into him did not stop because of his poor health. In October 2002, Li Jingwei was reported, and later, because he was suspected of embezzlement, he was removed from his position as a deputy to the National People's Congress and placed under residential surveillance. His charges were first "suspected of transferring Jianlibao's huge assets" and later "suspected of embezzlement." Subsequently, Li Jingwei's four old subordinates, Ruan Juyuan, Li Qingyuan, and Yang Shiming, were arrested one after another, and Yu Shanfu moved abroad. According to relevant regulations, the procuratorate should make a decision on a case transferred for review and prosecution within a maximum of one month and fifteen days. However, after the Li Jingwei case was transferred to the Foshan Municipal People's Procuratorate for review and prosecution in 2003, it was not prosecuted until 2009, a gap of 5 years and 11 months. His old subordinates even returned to work at the company for a time. Two years later, on August 29, 2011, the Foshan Intermediate People's Court heard Li Jingwei's embezzlement case at Guangzhou Zhujiang Hospital. This was an unprecedented trial in Chinese judicial history—in a small reception room of more than ten square meters outside the ward, with 3 judges, 2 prosecutors, 2 lawyers, and 2 stenographers, Li Jingwei was tried while sitting in a wheelchair. Li Jingwei's defense lawyer, Wang Bo, said it was the first time in his 25-year career that he had seen a trial conducted in a hospital for a patient. Li Ning mourning Li Jingwei In November 2011, the Foshan Intermediate Court found Li Jingwei guilty of embezzlement and sentenced him to 15 years in prison, along with confiscation of 150,000 yuan of personal property. After the verdict, Li Jingwei's family did not appeal. In his later years, Li Jingwei was bedridden and remained on medical parole. During this period, Li Jingwei never admitted his guilt until his death. -END-