Correspondence
Email sent to the press office of France's Ministry of Ecological Transition and Territorial Cohesion.
The email said that Cité Marine, a supplier of processed Alaska pollock and Atlantic cod products to Sysco France, sources from a company called Qingdao Tianyuan Aquatic Products. Qingdao Tianyuan Aquatic Products has received persons from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People’s Republic of China under the state-imposed labor transfer program. Sysco France is a supplier of frozen fish to dozens of local authorities in France, according to the EU tenders database. 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. The U.S. has prohibited the importation of goods produced from state-imposed forced labor. The email asked for comment from the ministry.