Correspondence
Email sent to Nanea Kalani, Communications Director at the Hawaii Department of Education.
The email said that a contract bid to supply breaded pollock fillets was approved for Channel Fish Processing Co. according to documents dated May 2021 published by the Department detailing procurement and contracts. Trade records show that Channel Fish has imported pollock from Qingdao Tianyuan Aquatic Products, a seafood processor in China. Qingdao Tianyuan has received persons from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People’s Republic of China under the state-imposed labor transfer program. 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.