Correspondence
Email sent to Kenny Lu, Sales Executive at QMC Foods.
The email said that QMC Foods stocks Sea Relation’s Sea Apple squid products, and Sea Relation imports squid from processors called Shandong Haidu and Rongcheng Haibo, based in China. Haidu and Haibo have 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, and obstruct freedom to leave employment. The U.S. has prohibited the importation of goods produced from state-imposed forced labor. Haidu and Haibo are Chishan Group companies. Fishing vessels owned by the group have been observed fishing in North Korean waters in contravention of UN sanctions and fishing illegally in Indonesian waters. The group also owns at least two reefer vessels which have transshipped with dozens of fishing ships tied to illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing as well as human rights abuses. The email asked for comment from QMC Foods.