If you missed it, Nashua Mayor Jim Donchess implicated former NH Governor Chris Sununu on the matter of Nongfu Springs’ purchase of land (to get water) adjacent to the Pennichuck water works in Nashua. He is alleged to have encouraged it, pursued it, and if you’re even the tiniest bit uppity (傲慢) about it, blame him.
Uppity is an understatement. Since Lily Tang Williams (more or less) broke the news, or at least introduced us to it, it’s been an issue of considerable concern to many. It has so altered the political temperature that Sununu’s replacement, Kelly Ayotte, has stepped up to the media microphone to make a statement.
“Obviously, we don’t want the Chinese Communist Party owning property in New Hampshire, certainly at all, but also, we want to know what they’re doing there,” Ayotte said. “I was hearing different information, and so I decided to ask the attorney general to do a full examination of the facts and circumstances of this purchase and what the purchase was made for and how this came about. I don’t want purchases like this to happen again.”
Water Water Everywhere?
According to USCHINA.org, five percent of New Hampshire’s goods and services exports went to China in 2024, 4% from CD-1 and 6% from the bluer CD2. Interesting, but not where I’m headed. Donchess came out to point a finger at Sununu, and my guess is Ayotte’s announcement is running cover.
Her predecessor says he has big shoulders, but in the interest of back-patting ass-covering Republican politics (don’t be insulted, Democrats do it too), I think this is a smoke screen. The AG will conduct a potentially lengthy review of the situation and release a report at a politically opportune moment, refuting Donchess’ claims, or, at least, muddying the water.
Or, and perhaps I’m not giving Kelly enough credit, it will be something to keep in her pocket as leverage on either side of whatever the hell was going on before Lily announced the alarming post-purchase discovery.
Ayotte pointed to a new state law that states if someone connected to the Chinese Communist Party is trying to purchase a property near national security facilities like Pease, the state will be notified.
“That law now requires that notice be given in those circumstances, so we would know, and at that point, it wouldn’t be a surprise but there’s hopefully, we’d be able to intervene,” she said.
While many a Chinese person is not our enemy, the Chinese Communist Party is, as is its ability or effort to control its people wherever in the globe they may roam – or get sent, as the case may be. I also feel sure that China is not letting American interests obtain access to key resources or to set up shop next to any facility linked to its war machine.
We don’t want to be like China, but it is easy to say, “Look, they won’t let us do that, so we’re not going to let them.”
China is a Communist regime. The owner of Nongfu Springs is China’s richest billionaire. A true oligarch. The only reason anyone in China has money (or their liver) is because the government allows it. It is therefore in their interest to comply with the CCP’s requirements to ensure they can maintain their wealth and their liver.
Nongfu may be here to buy and bottle water, or to make some other beverage with the water, but the huge sum laid out to get that facility and access can’t be ignored, nor can the fact that no matter how much money the Chinese Oligarch has, the CCP can end him at a whim. He can never be his own man, given the circumstances, and neither can his companies.
