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There never was and never will be a plan to sell Nashua’s water company to a Chinese beverage company, Mayor Jim Donchess said Tuesday night.

“I think you’ve been told things that aren’t true,” Donchess said.

People from outside the city crowded into the Gate City’s Board of Aldermen meeting Tuesday, stirred up by politicians like GOP congressional candidate Lily Tang Williams and U.S. Rep. Maggie Goodlander (D-NH02), who have been sounding alarms about Nongfu Spring.

Nongfu is China’s largest private beverage company and paid $67 million for a commercial property in the city earlier this year. Much has been made about the seemingly secretive nature of the purchase. But Donchess labeled those concerns fake news. Nongfu was openly invited into New Hampshire by Gov. Chris Sununu’s administration as part of an economic development initiative, the Democratic mayor said.

Packed Nashua Board of Aldermen meeting to discuss land purchase by major Chinese company on August 12, 2025

“If you have a problem with this, you’re in the wrong place. This was initiated and pursued by Concord. We are kind of just spectators to the whole thing,” Donchess told the crowd.

Nashua’s water utility, Pennichuck Water, is a company owned by the city. Pennichuck CEO John Boisvert said everyone in Nashua would know if there was ever a sale in the works, but there isn’t, he said.

“We are not for sale, and you all would know it if we were,” Boisvert said. 

Alderman Michael O’Brien, a retired city firefighter, called the Nongfu rumors a fire they didn’t start.

“An arson, if you will,” O’Brien said.

O’Brien was one of the city officials involved in the decade-long fight by the city to buy Pennichuck. At the time, Nashua wanted to prevent a foreign company from buying the local utility. Donchess said given the history, no one in the city government would approve any sale.

“The City of Nashua spent a lot of money, a lot of effort, and a long legal struggle to make sure a French company didn’t buy the water company,” Donchess said.

Nongfu was enticed to set up shop in Nashua by state officials, Donchess said. The company was already looking to expand into the United States and had narrowed its choices down to Nashua or a site in Maryland.

The company chose Nashua on the expectation that it would create hundreds of jobs in the city by opening a bottling plant. But rumors swirled for months that the city was selling Pennichuck, or selling water rights, or selling Pennichuck land to Nongfu. All are complete fabrications, Donchess said.

“Politicians are trying to get you upset … We understand that you may have concerns about this. We don’t really control any of this,” Donchess said. “You may be frustrated and angry, but (Nashua officials) are not the people you should be angry with.”

The state government is in control of nearly every aspect of Nongfu’s start-up. Under state law, Pennichuck is required to sell water to any customer, including foreign-owned companies. The Public Utilities Commission sets the price for the water. Additionally, the Public Utilities Commission would ultimately be able to veto the sale of any assets, like Pennichuck’s water rights or land.

Public comment for the meeting was scheduled to take place later in the meeting. Other Aldermen expressed frustration with the Nongfu misinformation coming from outside the city.

But some of the rumors may be coming from closer to home. Alderman Melbourne Moran blamed outside politicians for ginning up fear about the city selling the utility, while at the same time saying people should be afraid of large corporations poisoning the water supply.

“It’s reasonable to assume that a billionaire or a multinational corporation would poison the people of the city. The people are right to be concerned,” Moran said. 

Moran went on to say that the United States would not take the poisoning of Nashua by a Chinese beverage company lightly.

“We would crush them in a war like that,” Moran said.

The hottest question in Nashua is why Chinese beverage giant Nongfu Spring spent $67 million to buy an industrial building in the Gate City valued at a quarter of that amount. It’s going to be front and center at the Nashua Board of Aldermen meeting Tuesday night.

For months, speculation has swirled around the motivations behind Zhong Shanshan’s decision to purchase the property and buy up millions of gallons of water from the city’s supply. Zhong, the richest man in China with a net worth of around $60 billion, operates his business under the scrutiny of the Chinese Communist Party.

Concerns surround the building’s proximity to area military installations — the New Boston Space Force Station is just 20 minutes away — as well as defense contractors and vital infrastructure. It’s also in the flight path of the Nashua Airport.

All of that has added to the angst of Granite Staters concerned about growing Chinese influence in the U.S. It’s also sparked a flurry of national media attention. One of the people who’s been waving the red flag is former Chinese citizen Lily Tang Williams, who is running to represent Nashua in the U.S. Congress and plans to attend Tuesday’s Board of Aldermen meeting.

“I lived under the regime for 24 years,” Williams told radio host Jack Heath Monday. “I’m very aware of the ambitions of China’s leader, Xi Jinping. He has a dream for China, which is to overtake the United States by 2049 and become the dominant power. This is his long-term goal and China is our biggest adversary country.”

That is why Williams asks, “Why do we even sell our natural resources like water to our biggest adversary?”

Nongfu purchased the 330,000-square-foot property at 80 Northwest Boulevard in February. The property had last been used by an educational supply company. At the time of the sale, the name of the buyer was not disclosed.

Nongfu sells bottled water, tea, juices, and other drinks. It was one of the first private beverage companies to emerge in China in the 1990s and helped make Zhong China’s richest man.

When Williams, who is challenging incumbent U.S. Rep. Maggie Goodlander (D),  first began talking about the Nongfu Spring purchase, she was largely ignored. But in a sign of the political potency of the issue, last week Goodlander sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in his capacity as Chairperson of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (“CFIUS”) calling for a retroactive review of the $67 million purchase.

“Anytime we see a major acquisition of important real estate by a foreign adversary or competitor near sensitive American facilities, whether it be farm land, water infrastructure, or land near our military installations, we must investigate that thoroughly to understand if there is a threat posed to our communities, our economy, or our military,” Goodlander said in a statement.

What has some local residents worried is the fact that the Northwest Boulevard property is adjacent to Pennichuck Pond, one of many ponds in the Pennichuck water system that serves as the main source of water for Nashua.

Nashua’s water supply is managed by the Pennichuck Corporation, a semi-private water company controlled by the city. Nashua purchased Pennichuck in 2012 in a unique $200 million deal that left the corporate structure in place but positioned the city as the sole shareholder.

While some have expressed concerns that Nongfu planned to buy out Pennichuck and take over the water company, that won’t happen. Pennichuck Board Chair C. George Bower told NHJournal that Nongfu isn’t getting anything but water from Pennichuck, and it will be treated like any other commercial water customer.

“There is zero plan to sell the company, there is zero plan to sell any land. We have no land to sell,” Bower said.

Zhong’s relationship with the CCP, his company’s less-than-stellar environmental history, and the apparent secrecy surrounding the Nashua plant prompted Gov. Kelly Ayotte to say she would be watching the deal to make sure Nongfu remains a Pennichuck customer and not an owner.

“It’s critical that we safeguard New Hampshire from foreign adversaries like China. We need to ensure we aren’t allowing any national security threat to take root in our state,” Ayotte said in June.

The purchase was also part of the motivation behind legislation passed this summer to ban people from hostile foreign nations like China, Iran, and Russia from buying property in New Hampshire.

“I’m very concerned, especially when you look at what’s happening to our agricultural land and agricultural land near military bases,” said Sen. Regina Birdsell (R-Hampstead), the lead sponsor of the new law.

Pennichuck has the capacity to produce up to 35 million gallons per day, Bower said, and has plenty of capacity for Nongfu’s planned operations. Any costs associated with hooking Nongfu up to Pennichuck’s water system, like adding new water lines, will be borne by Nongfu. Pennichuck already supplies water for the Anheuser-Busch brewery in Merrimack, which Belgian beverage conglomerate InBev owns.

Republican state Sen. Kevin Avard, who represents Nashua, recently wrote in NHJournal that he’s not going to let the issue fade away.

“The fight is far from over. Nashua’s water and land belong to the people of New Hampshire — not to a foreign regime with a track record of espionage and exploitation. We must stay vigilant. No more backroom deals. No more foreign land grabs. No more gambling with our water supply and national security.”

People from hostile foreign nations like China, Iran, and Russia would be barred from buying property in New Hampshire under a revised proposal that is part of the just-passed budget bill.

“I’m very concerned, especially when you look at what’s happening to our agricultural land and agricultural land near military bases,” said Sen. Regina Birdsell (R-Hampstead).

The ban prohibits Granite State land purchases by buyers from the People’s Republic of China, the Russian Federation, the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Syrian Arab Republic, and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

But it was China’s itch to buy American property that prompted Birdsell’s proposal.

She has been trying to protect New Hampshire from hostile ownership for the last two legislative sessions. Birdsell’s proposal for this year would have only restricted hostile actors from buying properties within 10 miles of military bases, but a last-minute agreement with New Hampshire realtors allowed the legislature to put a broader ban into the budget bill.

Birdsell said if the deal had come together sooner, it could have stopped the massive — and some say suspicious — purchase of property in Nashua by Nongfu Spring. 

Nongfu is China’s largest beverage company, and its owner, Zhong Shanshan, is China’s richest person, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He also has ties to the Chinese Community Party.

Nongfu spent  $67 million on an industrial building close to one of Nashua’s water sources, despite online assessments valuing the property at approximately $15 million. The company will be buying water from Nashua’s Pennichuck Water Systems, like any other industrial customer, Pennichuck told NHJournal.

But the worry about foreign ownership is deeper than bottled water. Chinese-owned companies own or lease approximately 400,000 acres of agricultural land in the United States, a fraction of the 40 million acres owned by all foreign nationals or foreign-owned companies. It’s the anti-American politics and the local location that have lawmakers like Birdsell concerned.

Chinese properties in the United States are close to 19 American military facilities, such as Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, Patrick Space Force Base in Florida, and Camp Pendleton in California. Birdsell, whose father was in military intelligence, sees the potential danger in allowing regimes like China, North Korea, and Russia to gain a foothold close to American defense facilities. 

“I’m very concerned about the New Boston Space Force Base, the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, and Pease,” she said.

Birdsell isn’t alone. Over the past few years, more than two-thirds of state governments around the country have enacted a ban on foreign people or entities from buying property. On the federal level, U.S. Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.) and Sen. John Freeman (D-Penn.) are pushing  for more oversight on foreign countries buying American farmland. 

“We should take back all of their farmland. This is really a national security issue, and it is a food security issue,” Fetterman said in 2023.

Fears about foreign ownership of land in sensitive U.S. locations have been heightened by news from Russia and Iran. In Russia, Ukrainian forces were able to get trucks loaded with drones near military locations and unleash a recent devastating attack on the Russian air force. In Iran, Israeli operatives built an entire drone factory inside the country and used those drones to hit the Islamic Republic’s air defense and missile launching capabilities.

“I would say it’s a wake-up moment now,” said Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin told a security roundtable after the successful Ukraine attack. “We’ve always known that hardening our bases is something that we need to do, and so we have that actually in our budgets, to be able to get more resilient basing.”

There are potential security threats in New Hampshire. Space Force officials have testified in Concord about drones flying onto the base and other cybersecurity threats the New Boston facility is tackling.

More troubling is the 2022 arrest of a Russian man living in Merrimack who was allegedly part of a smuggling operation. According to law enforcement, Alexey Brayman was part of a spy ring that used his New Hampshire home to funnel things like ammunition for sniper rifles and electronics that could be used in nuclear or hypersonic weapons to locations around the world.

The fate of the budget is uncertain with Gov. Kelly Ayotte’s veto threat hanging over it. Birdsell’s legislation isn’t controversial, but everything is up in the air until the budget gets signed.

“I’m just going day to day right now,” Birdsell said.

Fears that Chinese billionaire Zhong Shanshan planned to buy his way into controlling Nashua’s water supply are giving way to tentative relief, with officials keeping a wary eye on a deal.

The good news, says Pennichuck Water, is that the potential deal with Zhong’s Nongfu Spring could ultimately lower residential water bills.

But state and local officials are less than thrilled that the international customer is based in China, which has an adversarial relationship with the U.S., and where companies are under the thumb of the Communist regime.

In February, Nongfu Spring secretly bought a $67 million industrial property in Nashua close to the Pennichuck Pond watershed, sparking concern about the future of Pennichuck Water, the utility owned by the City of Nashua. But C. George Bower, chairman of Pennichuck’s board of directors, told NHJournal there is no plan to sell Zhong anything but water.

“There is zero plan to sell the company, there is zero plan to sell any land. We have no land to sell,” Bower said.

Zhong’s close ties to the authoritarian Chinese Communist government, his company’s less-than-stellar environmental record, and the secrecy surrounding the Nashua plant generated alarm throughout the state. The company declined to respond to questions from NH Journal about the unusual property purchase or its plans in Nashua.

Gov. Kelly Ayotte told NHJournal that she would be watching the deal to make sure Nongfu remains a Pennichuck customer and not a Pennichuck owner.

“It’s critical that we safeguard New Hampshire from foreign adversaries like China. We need to ensure we aren’t allowing any national security threat to take root in our state,” Ayotte said.

According to Forbes, Zhong is worth $58 billion, making him the wealthiest man in China. In addition to owning Nongfu Spring, China’s biggest maker of bottled water, he also controls Wantai Biological, which makes rapid diagnostic tests for infectious diseases, including COVID-19.

Nongfu and Pennichuck are in the preliminary stages of deal negotiations, Bower said, but just for water. Zhong wants up to two million gallons a day for his planned beverage plant at his new 80 Northwest Blvd. property. That’s good news for Pennichuck, its owners, and its customers, Bower said. 

Pennichuck has the capacity to produce up to 35 million gallons per day, Bower said, more than enough to accommodate Nongfu’s planned operations. Any costs associated with hooking Nongfu up to Pennichuck’s water system, like adding new water lines, would be borne by the company.

A large-scale, industrial customer like Nongfu would lock into a contract that guarantees a set amount of water per month for the customer. Bower said such deals also require the customer to pay for all the water, whether they use it or not, giving Pennichuck a consistent, new revenue source.

It gets better for Pennichuck. As part of its conservation efforts, Pennichuck charges commercial and industrial customers on a rising scale, meaning the more water they buy, the higher the rate goes. Adding Nongfu as a customer could help drive down costs for Pennichuck and everyone in the Pennichuck system.

“We have fixed costs and variable costs, and a contract like this brings in an ongoing revenue stream that could help us control rates,” Bower said.

That means Pennichuck’s thousands of residential water customers throughout southern New Hampshire could end up paying less for their drinking water, Bower said.

Adding Nongfu to the system is the same as adding any other commercial or industrial customer, Bower insisted. Pennichuck already supplies water for the Anheuser-Busch brewery in Merrimack, which Belgian beverage conglomerate InBev owns.

Granite Staters concerned by a Chinese billionaire buying a large facility near Nashua’s water supply say the issue isn’t xenophobia. Many international businesses are active in New Hampshire. Instead, it’s the specific threat posed by China.

“Water is one of our most vital resources – to have a business, backed by the CCP, accessing water in our backyard is alarming,” said former state Rep. Randy Whitehead. “City officials and the Pennichuck Corporation need to come clean and provide some answers about this deal.”

Sen. Regina Birdsell (R-Hampstead) has proposed legislation to stop Chinese companies from owning land near sensitive military sites in the state.

“Whether it’s flying spy balloons across our country or scooping up critical plots of U.S. real estate, China has stepped up its efforts to spy on our country,” Birdsell said when she proposed the legislation. “Other hostile nations, such as Russia, Iran, Syria, and North Korea, could try the same surveillance tactics unless we do something to stop them. Totalitarian nations do not see any difference between one of their citizens’ companies and the government itself.”

The prospect that Pennichuck could be bought by a foreign individual or entity is alarming, and the reason that the City of Nashua now owns the utility. 

“When the city bought Pennichuck, it really did to secure the water supply,” Bower said.

Nashua waged a decade-long battle to buy Pennichuck, closing the $200 million deal in 2012. The city took action after watching the old owners of Pennichuck risk the future security of the region’s water supply. The former owners sold off wetlands to commercial developers and were even considering a purchase offer from a French company when Nashua stepped in. Today, Pennichuck continues to operate as a for-profit utility corporation, but it reports to a single shareholder, the City of Nashua. 

China’s largest beverage company, Nongfu Spring, is setting up operations in Nashua after spending $67 million on an industrial building.

But the property’s location, adjacent to the Pennichuck watershed area that supplies drinking water for the city, raises questions about where Nongfu will get its H2O.

Pennichuck Pond

Recent developments have sparked public concern about the potential sale of Nashua’s water resources to a foreign entity. A significant real estate transaction and subsequent hiring activities have brought those issues to the forefront, prompting questions about the future of the city’s water supply.

According to online records, in February 2025, STAG Industrial sold a 337,391-square-foot industrial property at 80 Northwest Boulevard in Nashua for a staggering $67 million, despite online assessments valuing the property at approximately $15 million. The buyer was not officially disclosed, leading to speculation about foreign involvement. However, recent job postings on LinkedIn indicate that Nongfu Spring, a major Chinese bottled water company, is actively hiring for positions at that location.

Nongfu sells bottled water, tea, juices, and other drinks. It was one of the first private beverage companies to emerge in China in the 1990s and helped make its owner, Zhong Shanshan, the richest man in China with a net worth of around $65 billion. 

Zhong and Nongfu came under fire last year in China when nationalist activists there deemed the billionaire was not patriotic enough. It’s not clear how much the boycott was the work of so-called nationalists or part of a pressure campaign brought by the authoritarian government against Zhong. However, it’s well known that China’s Communist Party (CCP) exerts a strong influence over businesses operating within the country, both domestically and foreign. 

That’s one reason state Senate Majority Leader Regina Birdsell (R-Hampstead) has proposed legislation to prevent agents of the Chinese government from buying and owning land near sensitive military locations in the state.

The concern in the Gate City isn’t war fighters, but water.

Across the road from Nongfu’s new beverage plant is the Pennichuck Pond, one of many ponds in the Pennichuck water system that serves as Nashua’s main water source. 

Nashua’s water supply is managed by the Pennichuck Corporation, a semi-private water company controlled by the city. Nashua purchased Pennichuck in 2012 in a unique $200 million deal that left the corporate structure in place but positioned the city as the sole shareholder. 

The deal took 10 years and multiple trips to court to go through. The push to buy Pennichuck started in the early 2000s when it was learned that a French company planned to buy a controlling interest in the water supplier. City leaders acted to keep local control of the water. 

But prior to the possible foreign owner controversy, city leaders were unhappy with Pennichuck’s management, which had been selling off hundreds of acres of land to developers. The purchase was also a way for Nashua to keep Pennichuck’s land for water use, and not for building.

The upcoming Pennichuck Board of Directors meeting on May 21, 2025, has locals wondering if they will discuss and vote on any measures related to Pennichuck Pond, the water supply, and any deals related to these recent transactions. Current Board Chair C. George Bower did not respond to a request for comment about the upcoming meeting.

Pennichuck is based in Nashua and supplies water to communities throughout southern New Hampshire. Pennichuck serves approximately 40,000 customers using water from the Pennichuck watershed and the Merrimack River. It generates more than $50 million a year in revenue against $40 to $45 million in expenses.