It all starts with a knock at the door. That knock is no friendly neighbor. Instead, it’s an invitation by a Chinese official to a Uyghur to join a government work program. It’s an offer Uyghurs cannot refuse. Not because the pay or job is too enticing, but because their future (as well as their life and livelihood) may depend on it.
This is a scenario described in Ian Urbina’s recent report for the New Yorker on Uyghurs forced to labor in China’s extensive seafood industry. The report is groundbreaking because it reveals a significant blind spot in U.S. efforts to thwart goods produced with Uyghur forced labor from entering U.S. markets.
The seafood industry is big business, constituting approximately $140 billion in trade annually. According to testimony from Sally Yozell, Senior Fellow and Director of the Environmental Security program at Stimson Center, in 2022 alone, the U.S. imported over $30 billion in seafood.
And Yozell reports that just under 40 percent of U.S. imports of seafood, despite originating in the U.S., are processed in China. Urbina’s report puts a finer point on it, saying that over the past five years, the U.S. has imported more than $200 million in seafood from entities whose production line is likely tainted by Uyghur forced labor.
Urbina’s investigation was extensive. Video evidence, Chinese government documents, and investigative visits to seafood industry factories uncovered the true nature of Uyghurs forced to labor in the seafood sector. The investigations revealed the coercive nature of the labor transfer programs, meager wages, limited-to-no freedom of movement, lengthy work hours, and squalid conditions.
To make matters worse, Uyghurs who refuse labor transfers (not specific only to the seafood industry) are often sent to detention facilities or the political reeducation camps known to house between 1 million and 2 million Uyghurs. A new report by Adrian Zenz, Senior Fellow and Director of China Studies at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, meticulously documents these revelations.