1996 Danone and Wahaha set up a joint venture company. Danone invested US$ 45 million plus RMB 50 million for trademark transfer, accounting for 5 1% of the shares of the joint venture company, and Wahaha Group held 49% of the shares. Over the past ten years of cooperation between the two parties, the company has achieved very good benefits, and Danone has shared more than 3 billion profits from the joint venture company.

In 2006, Fan Yimou, the new chairman of the joint venture company Zhongdaneng, found that Zong had set up a series of non-joint ventures with state-owned enterprises and employees outside the joint venture company, and these non-joint ventures also brought huge profits to Wahaha every year. Fan Yimou thinks that the existence of these non-joint ventures has robbed the market and profits that should have been enjoyed by the joint venture company, so he demands to buy 5 1% equity of the non-joint venture company for 4 billion yuan. Zong Houqing rejected Danone's acquisition request.

As a result, Danone launched a comprehensive lawsuit against religious and non-joint venture companies, but in the end dozens of lawsuits at home and abroad ended in Danone losing.