"Forced labor concerns prompt US lawmakers to demand ban on seafood from 2 Chinese provinces" 24 October 2023

A group of U.S. lawmakers wants the Biden administration to ban seafood processed in two Chinese provinces from entering the U.S. market because of concerns about rights abuses. They also say that Chinese facilities using forced labor should be banned from doing business with American companies.

The request was sent Tuesday by the heads of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China to the Department of Homeland Security. The commission is a congressional group charged with monitoring China’s compliance with international human rights standards...

The commission cited investigations by the nonprofit journalist organization The Outlaw Ocean Project that revealed human rights abuses on China’s fishing fleet and the forced labor of ethnic Uyghurs from the northwestern region of Xinjiang in seafood processing plants in the eastern Chinese province of Shandong. It said the sanctions would be necessary to comply with U.S. laws prohibiting the entry of goods made with forced labor.

The commission said there was also emerging evidence of up to 80,000 North Koreans working in seafood processing in the northeastern Chinese province of Liaoning...

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Ian Urbina, whose team at The Outlaw Ocean Project spent four years investigating China’s role in the world’s seafood supply chain, testified before the commission. He said the federal law “puts the onus on industry, on the companies themselves, to prove that they do not in fact have Uyghurs or other ethnic minority Xinjiang labor tied to their products and until they do, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection are supposed to block shipments of this import.