The site’s steep purchase price and location near critical infrastructure, including a watershed area that supplies drinking water for the city, defence contractor BAE Systems, and a federal aviation control centre, sparked concern among local residents and lawmakers.
A bill restricting land sales near military installations to entities from “foreign adversaries”, including China, had previously stalled in the state’s legislature.
The Nongfu case, however, revived the issue’s political momentum, spurring lawmakers to incorporate the measure into the state budget, which passed in June. The new law also grants the attorney general authority to seek forfeiture of any such property.
Now, some state Republican leaders are calling for further scrutiny. They are pushing for both state-level enforcement and an investigation by the federal Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, also known as CFIUS – a US Treasury Department-led body able to review and possibly cancel this purchase on national security grounds.
Meanwhile, plans to build a beverage plant on the site appear stalled. Some locals argue that selling surplus city water to a private company could lower public water bills.
But the conversation in social media and local news reports has shifted to speculation over why a Chinese billionaire is interested in an abandoned property, fuelling rumours of a Chinese takeover of local water resources.
According to Chris Pereira, CEO of iMpact, a New York-based consultancy that helps Chinese firms in their global operations, “the fact that Zhong is China’s richest man makes this story far more politically charged”.
He said that in the current geopolitical environment, “linking a major land acquisition to a prominent Chinese billionaire, especially one in a strategic sector like water, adds fuel to public scepticism and political posturing”.
“The price paid for the land only adds to the perception that ‘something must be going on’, even if the purchase is commercially justified,” Pereira added, saying these elements “create an optics problem more than a substance problem”.
The Nashua Planning Department told the South China Morning Post (SCMP) that the company’s application to establish a beverage-manufacturing facility was withdrawn in late May, and no active or open application is under consideration.
The city has emphasised that it was neither involved in nor informed about the property sale, as it was a private transaction.
John Boisvert, CEO of Pennichuck Corp, a semi-private water company controlled by the city that serves about 40,000 customers using water from the Pennichuck watershed and the Merrimack River, said routine due diligence meetings were held by local authorities on the company’s proposal to set up a plant and buy water from Pennichuck between October and December.
After saying yes, though, Pennichuck has not heard back from NF North America on “the next steps”.
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