Correspondence
Email sent to the contact address for Qingdao Lian Yang.
The email said: "I’m contacting you in light of our latest investigation which concerns the use of forced labor in China’s seafood processing industry.
Qingdao Lian Yang Aquatic Products Co. Ltd. has received persons from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People’s Republic of China under the government’s labor transfer program. We have found evidence of Uyghurs working at Qingdao Lian Yang Aquatic Products Co. Ltd. as early as April 2022 and as recently as April 2023.
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 schemes which use coercive methods in worker enrollment, and obstruct freedom to leave employment.
Qingdao Lian Yang’s international customers include companies in the U.S., where the importation of goods produced from state-imposed forced labor is prohibited.
Can you confirm or deny if Uyghurs have been employed at Qingdao Lian Yang’s plant any time over the last five years? Does Qingdao Lian Yang have any comment or statement to make in light of the above information? Please respond to this email by close of business September 7, 2023, and note that all interactions are fully on record."