Correspondence
Email sent to the Chinese Foreign Ministry's International Press Center.
The email asked if this was the right contact address for getting an official response about concerns regarding labor imported from Xinjiang and North Korean.
The Outlaw Ocean Project emailed China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, saying: "I’m contacting you in light of our latest investigation which concerns the use of forced labor in China’s food processing industry.
Seafood processing companies in Shandong province have received persons from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People’s Republic of China who were transferred under the government’s labor transfer program. The United Nations, human rights organizations and academic experts agree that since 2018, the Chinese government has systematically subjected Xinjiang’s predominantly Muslim ethnic minorities to forced labor across the country via state-sanctioned employment programs which use coercive methods in worker enrollment, and obstruct freedom to leave employment. The international customers of the products exported by these processors include companies in the U.S., where the importation of goods produced from state-imposed forced labor is prohibited. In addition to earlier legislation restricting goods made from forced labor, the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, signed into law in December 2021, creates a presumption that goods produced by Uyghurs transferred out of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region via ‘labor-transfer’ programs are the product of forced labor and cannot be imported to the United States unless an importer can provide clear evidence the imports were produced without the use of forced labor. Does the Chinese government have any comment to make about the use of Uyghur labor in China’s seafood processing industry? We have also found evidence of North Koreans working in seafood processing factories in Liaoning province, after the December 2019 deadline for the repatriation of overseas North Korean workers required under UN Security Council Resolutions. Has the Chinese government taken steps to check for or address the continuance of North Korean overseas workers in China? Please respond to this email by close of business July 14, 2023."
The Outlaw Ocean Project emailed: "I contacted your office recently regarding our investigation into the use of forced labor in China’s seafood processing industry. I’m contacting you now in relation to our research into the Chinese distant water squid fleet.
Our investigation has found that between 2013 and 2021, at least 27 workers on 17 Chinese squid fishing ships suffered symptoms associated with beriberi, a disease caused by malnutrition which medical experts say is preventable, reversible, and an indicator of severe neglect. Of those workers, at least 15 died. In some of these cases, captains refused to send crew back to shore for medical care, while on at least seven of these ships, other evidence pointed to forced labor.
Medical researchers have said that beriberi is more prevalent and more often fatal on Chinese fishing ships because this fleet relies heavily and increasingly on trans-shipment, which means the vessels can stay out at sea for two or three years without returning to port. Medical experts have also said that the long and intense work on these ships also accelerates beriberi.
Is the Government of China taking steps to address the beriberi risk among the Chinese and foreign crew on Chinese-operated fishing vessels?
Does the Government of China have any comment to make in response to this email? Please let me know by close of business on July 21, 2023."
The Outlaw Ocean Project emailed the Foreign Ministry, asking: "Research bodies such as the Brookings Institution have said that China is expanding its military power by using the Chinese fishing fleet to press territorial claims in various parts of the world as a kind of civilian militia. Does the Ministry have any statement or clarification to make in response to that description?"
Email sent to the international press office of China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, saying: "A recent investigation has found a variety of seafood plants in China near the border with North Korea that in the past few years have made use of North Korean workers in violation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2397. Could the Foreign Ministry please answer the following question: What steps has the Chinese government taken to ensure that North Korean workers are no longer being employed in China as is mandated by the sanctions issued in 2017?"