Li Jingwei may not be a particularly well-known name, but Jianlibao, the beverage brand he launched three decades ago, is unforgettable for many Chinese people, as it was one of China's most popular brands and known as "China's magic water."

After Li died Monday in Sanshui district of Foshan, South China's Guangdong Province, his legendary life story, with both its honors and disgrace, has been regarded as typical of China's first group of entrepreneurs during the reform and opening-up period.

Good old days

In 1983, when Li was the head of a State-owned liquor distillery in Sanshui, he learned of a beverage formula that was beneficial for restoring vigor, and he launched the Jianlibao brand the following year.

The 1984 Olympic Games held in Los Angeles offered a good opportunity for Jianlibao, which won overnight fame by sponsoring the Chinese Olympic delegation.

In the same year, its sales amounted to 3.45 million yuan ($558,210), with the figure climbing to 16.5 million yuan in 1985 and 130 million yuan in 1986.

In 1991, Li planned to boost sales further with an 8 million yuan investment program.

The figure of 8 million was considered to be a huge investment at that time, as well as a massive risk, Guangzhou Daily quoted a former Jianlibao employee surnamed Li as saying Tuesday.

But the plan was a success, and the annual sales of the brand soared to 5 billion yuan in 1996, with half of Sanshui's fiscal revenue coming from the company during those years.

"Li was such a bold and enterprising man," and Jianlibao would never have flourished without him, employee Li also said.

Li also built deep connections with sports. He established a joint venture in 1990 selling sportswear, managed by athlete Li Ning. The company spun off from Jianlibao at the end of 1994, and was renamed Li Ning Co in 1996. It went on to become one of China's largest sportswear companies.

Broken relations

At the end of 1996, home appliance producer TCL Group signed an agreement with the Huizhou government, also in Guangdong Province, allowing TCL's management to buy equity in the firm.

The news excited Li, who started to plan for a stock listing and construction of a new building. He invested 1 billion yuan to build a 38-story Jianlibao Building in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province and relocated the company's headquarters from Sanshui to Guangzhou in 1997.

However, by that time his relationship with the Sanshui government had seriously worsened.

Li's plan for a Hong Kong listing of Jianlibao was refused by the local government and his proposal of a management buyout at a price of 450 million yuan was also refused in 1999.

Sanshui government decided to sell Jianlibao in 2001, but still refused to sell it to Li's team.

In 2002, the Sanshui government sold a 75 percent stake in Jianlibao to Zhejiang International Trust and Investment Co for 338 million yuan, marking the end of Li's control of Jianlibao.

Nine days after the firm was sold, 63-year-old Li was hospitalized with a cerebral hemorrhage. Later in the year, he was sued for misappropriation of State assets to buy insurance products for himself and other company executives.

The court suspended the trial due to Li's poor physical health and he remained in hospital during the following years. He was eventually sentenced to 15 years in prison in November 2011.

Future of Jianlibao

Partly as a result of the conflict between Li and the Sanshui government, Jianlibao saw a sharp drop in sales.

In 2005, the company was acquired by Taiwan food firm Uni-President Group, but this failed to help the brand restore its fortunes.

Jianlibao is now popular only in regions around Guangdong, Yan Qiang, an analyst with Hejun Consulting, told the Global Times.

Its sales totaled 1.8 billion yuan in 2012, Southern Metropolis Daily reported Tuesday, citing company sources.

According to Jianlibao's website, it paid more than 50 million yuan in tax in 2012, indicating that the company has not given up on reinvigorating the brand.

However, analysts believe it faces severe difficulties.

"It's possible for it to bounce back because the brand is still well-known. But it must strengthen its corporate governance, innovation and expand its distribution channels," Yan said.

Another problem is that Jianlibao does not make mainstream products such as herbal tea or milk beverages, so it lacks competitiveness in the fiercely competitive beverage market, Zhu Danpeng, a researcher with food industry research firm 21food.cn, told the Global Times Tuesday.

As well as requiring huge amounts of capital, the brand also needs to upgrade its product line and improve its management system, Zhu said, which will be "very difficult for it at the moment."

Its target consumers include low-income consumers in rural areas and people aged from 30 to 45 who have seen the glorious past of the brand, but these loyal consumers are gradually disappearing, Zhu said, and it will be hard for the brand to attract younger customers.

Voices of support

"Li has made a great contribution to the firm and we felt pity for him," Southern Metropolis Daily quoted a former employee of Jianlibao as saying Tuesday.

Financial writer Wu Xiaobo, who has written two books about Jianlibao, appealed to the authorities in 2011 not to prosecute Li.

Wu believed Li's case - like that of Chu Shijian of tobacco firm Hongta Group and Pan Ning of home appliance firm Kelon - was the result of a breakdown in the relationship between officials and businesses during a time of reform of property rights in State-owned enterprises.

Chu was sent to prison in 1999 for embezzling public funds and Pan was asked to resign in 1999 due to the breakdown in relations with the Shunde government in Guangdong Province.

These unfortunate cases are a mark of the era, Wu said, noting that China needs clearer guidelines for property rights between enterprises and local governments to avoid such situations in the future.

"We should applaud the enterprising spirit of people like Li, which was quite rare in China at that time," Tian Yun, editor-in-chief of the China Macroeconomic Information Network, told the Global Times.

The prosecution of Li and Chu was partly a result of the complicated economic environment at the time, but they both violated the law after all, Tian said.

Liang Jialing contributed to the story