My name is Ian Urbina and I’m the director of The Outlaw Ocean Project, a journalism non-profit based in Washington D.C. that publishes stories about human rights and environmental issues connected with the sea.

I’m writing to you in light of our latest investigation, which concerns the Chinese squid fishing industry, and a link we’ve discovered between abuses in that industry and in the supply chain of Rongcheng Jiamei Seafood Co. Ltd.

This link concerns a Chinese squid jigger owned by Rongcheng Wangdao Ocean Aquatic Products. In a seven-month period between August 2020 and March 2021, one…

I wrote to your company earlier this year regarding our investigation into abuses in the Chinese squid fishing industry. I’m contacting you now in light of our latest investigation, which concerns the use of forced labor in China’s seafood processing industry.

Rongcheng Jiamei Seafood is a Chishan Group company. The Chishan Group has received persons from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People’s Republic of China under a state-imposed labor transfer program, since 2021 and as recently as May 2023.

The United Nations, human rights organizations and academic experts agree that sin…