Correspondence
Email sent to Ben Lin, President of Bestar America.
The email said that the company's supplier Qingdao Tianyuan has received persons from XUAR under the Chinese government's labor transfer program. It also asked for comment.
Ben Lin of Bestar America replied by email to say: "So far as I know, none of the workshops at Qingdao Tianyuan Aquatic Products where they process frozen seafood products for us has workers from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. These workshops are audited annually by our customers in USA and EU, as well as by third-party agencies."
Email sent to Bestar America saying The Outlaw Ocean Project has found evidence of Uyghurs laborers deployed to Qingdao Tianyuan facilities processing white fish, including what appears to be the same species purchased by Bestar America Inc., as recently as May 2023, and asking if Bestar raised any questions or concerns about this issue with Qingdao Tianyuan directly.
Bestar replied, saying: "I raised the question with Qingdao Tianyuan directly late last week, I got a reconfirmation that none of their workshops where they process seafood products for us has workers from Xinjiang Uyghur. On the other hand, SGS inspects products on-site in the workshops regularly for years, while Qingdao Tianyuan pack these for us, they never brought up such an issue to our attention."
The Outlaw Ocean Project replied, asking if Bestar could supply a copy of an audit report about Qingdao Tianyuan.