It is not news that Nogfu Spring Water acquired a large property adjacent to the Pennichuck Water Plant. It’s been the talk of the town, so to speak, the state, and now the nation. Nongfu says it wants to sell beverages and needs access to water. Pennichuk says it has an agreement to sell water to Nogfu for that purpose.
Just business, but is it? That’s the latest theory to arise with the word conspiracy attached.
New Hampshire Business Review says.
NF North America’s purchase was recorded on Jan. 31 with the Hillsborough County Register of Deeds.
The seller of the Nashua property was Stag Industrial Holdings LLC, a real estate investment trust focused on the acquisition, ownership and operation of industrial properties. The property has been unused for 11 years.
A Feb. 3 press release from Stag announced the seller but not the buyer. “STAG Industrial, Inc. completed the sale of a building in Nashua, NH, for gross proceeds of $67 million. Representing a cash cap rate of 4.9%, the sale to an undisclosed buyer ended an 11-year hold on the property,” it said.
The City of Nashua assesses the value of the property at $15.6 million.
Newstarget (confess, I’ve never heard of them)
The property in Nashua, New Hampshire, bought by Nongfu Spring in January, sits within a 10-mile radius of BAE Systems and less than a half-hour from the New Boston Space Force Station. The sale bypassed review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), despite its proximity to defense facilities and occurring during a presidential transition period. State Rep. Lily Tang Williams, a congressional candidate, toured the site in May, decrying the loophole as a grave threat. “They’re in my backyard — in New Hampshire,” Williams said in a YouTube video. “Please investigate this.”
The acquisition mirrors broader patterns. Texas, alone, hosts 159,640 acres of Chinese-owned farmland near military bases, including Val Verde County’s Laughlin Air Force Base, which trains pilots. Sun Guangxin, a close CCP ally, bought 100,000 acres there, citing wind farm development — a purpose critics dismiss as a cover. “Under the guise of farming, these sites can host surveillance tech,” warned retired Brigadier General Robert Spalding, noting China’s history of embedding spies in commercial ventures.
An industrial property in Nashua, New Hampshire, spanning 23 acres, was sold in January to China’s largest bottled water company, owned by one of the country’s richest billionaires. The sale has since garnered attention due to its proximity to U.S. defense facilities.
On May 29, congressional candidate Lily Tang Williams in New Hampshire’s Second District visited 80 Northwest Boulevard in Nashua, trying to bring attention to the national security risks.
“I just want to increase awareness,” she said in a video published on her YouTube channel.
“L3Harris, defense contractor, [is] just right here across the street.
“We get upset when the balloons fly over, but now they’re here, they are in my backyard, in New Hampshire. Please, somebody investigate this.”
Lily was recently featured on News Nation regarding the purchase, as the buyer paid three times the asking price. The question continues to be why?
You do not become wealthy in China unless the government allows it. You do not leave or do business outside China without the Chinese Communist Party’s permission. That permission always has strings.
Always.
What those are may not immediately be nefarious, but it is impossible to be a Chinese National and not have some expectation that whatever liberty you have been allowed doesn’t require you to give back. They know where you are and where your family lives, and they use this to get whatever they want.
In other words, it is practically impossible for Nongfu to just be here to sell water and tea, even if that was what they wanted to do and nothing else.
I asked Grok.
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Zhong Shanshan’s Background and Family: Zhong, China’s richest man and Nongfu Spring’s founder, reportedly comes from a family with historical CCP ties. His grandfather was an early member of the Communist Party and served as the first Party boss of Zhuji, Zhejiang, in the 1920s. However, Zhong himself faced hardship during the Cultural Revolution, dropping out of school and taking up manual labor jobs, suggesting his family’s early CCP connections may not have translated into personal privilege. There’s no clear indication these historical ties equate to active CCP control over Nongfu Spring today.
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Allegations of Government Connections: A 2025 Washington Times article claims Zhong has family members with “deep connections to the Chinese government and military,” though it provides no specific evidence or names to substantiate this. The article frames Nongfu Spring’s $67 million purchase of a commercial property in Nashua, New Hampshire, as suspicious, suggesting potential CCP influence due to the party’s broader strategy of blurring lines between public and private ventures. This claim remains speculative without concrete documentation.
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CCP Influence in Private Enterprises: In China, the CCP has systematically increased its presence in private businesses since 2008, including establishing party branches within companies. A 2017 study on Anhui province details how the CCP uses methods like appointing party-building instructors and rewarding business elites with party positions to extend influence. While this applies broadly to China’s private sector, there’s no specific evidence that Nongfu Spring has a CCP branch or that Zhong holds a formal party role. Still, as a major corporation, Nongfu Spring likely faces pressure to align with CCP economic and political goals, as all large Chinese firms do.
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Nationalist Backlash and State Media Response: In 2024, Nongfu Spring faced a nationalist boycott over perceived “pro-Japan” branding and Zhong’s son’s U.S. citizenship, which some netizens viewed as unpatriotic. Interestingly, Zhejiang Daily, a CCP-affiliated outlet, defended Nongfu Spring, urging netizens to stop attacking private entrepreneurs like Zhong, suggesting the state sees Nongfu as valuable to the economy. This defense could imply a level of alignment with state interests, though it doesn’t confirm direct CCP control.
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Business Environment in China: The CCP’s influence over private companies often manifests indirectly through regulatory oversight, access to markets, or incentives. Nongfu Spring’s ability to become China’s largest bottled water company, with a 26.5% market share in 2021, suggests it navigates this environment effectively. Critics argue that no company of this scale could operate in China without some degree of CCP acquiescence or cooperation, though this is a general observation rather than specific evidence against Nongfu.
Grok offered one caveat: “The company’s 2020 Hong Kong IPO and investments from U.S. firms like Vanguard and BlackRock further complicate the narrative of it being a CCP puppet. Accusations of CCP ties often rely on guilt by association or the assumption that all Chinese firms serve the party, but no public records confirm Zhong or Nongfu Spring as direct CCP operatives.”
I then asked ChatGPT the same question.
Nongfu Spring (and its billionaire founder, Zhong Shanshan) does not have any official organizational ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). It is a private enterprise, not state‑owned, and Zhong maintains around 84% ownership of the company reddit.com+15en.wikipedia.org+15theepochtimes.com+15.
However, several indirect political connections are worth noting:
Political Pressure through Public Opinion
In 2024, Nongfu Spring became the target of a sharp online nationalist campaign—accused of being “too Japanese,” criticized for Zhong’s son holding a U.S. passport, and blamed for allegedly disrespecting patriotic values wsj.com+5sundayguardianlive.com+5reddit.com+5theguardian.com+2rfa.org+2wsj.com+2.
Analysts argue that such online fervor is often coordinated—or at least tolerated—by CCP-controlled propaganda and censorship mechanisms to remind wealthy private entrepreneurs that they remain under state scrutiny .Party Suspicion of Concentrated Wealth
The CCP leadership, especially under Xi Jinping, views very wealthy private individuals with suspicion—fearing they could amass “economic power to threaten political control.” The online backlash against Nongfu has been interpreted as a method for the party to signal its authority and remind private firms of the limits on their autonomy lemonde.fr+9sundayguardianlive.com+9en.wikipedia.org+9.Propaganda-Endorsed Nationalist Campaigns
The wave of nationalist attacks—though often portrayed as grassroots—likely aligns with CCP propaganda priorities. This serves to both harness and calibrate public sentiment, keeping private enterprises in a subservient role to party interests .
Chew on it and decide for yourselves, but remember this. Suppose Donald Trump had bought it to bottle water or make tea, a big, beautiful plant, better than anywhere in the world. Producing the best water and tea, you’ve never tasted anything like it. In that case, I bet the Mayor of Nashua would not only be more concerned, but the city would do everything it could to block the sale, the contract for water, and anything else.
One more point. Most Democrats, especially those in elected office, have a more than favorable view of China. They want to emulate it politically. And the real estate taxes and transfer fees on 67 million are quite a lot of extra scratch, no matter what they do there or at Daniel Webster College.
