Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) Event: "Dark Nets, Illicit Labor—Confronting China’s IUU Fishing and Seafood Supply Chain"

 

Pix credit US Military Review

 

 The Congressional-Executive Commission on China was created by the U.S. Congress in 2000 "with the legislative mandate to monitor human rights and the development of the rule of law in China, and to submit an annual report to the President and the Congress. The Commission consists of nine Senators, nine Members of the House of Representatives, and five senior Administration officials appointed by the President." (CECC About). The CECC FAQs provide useful information about the CECC. See CECC Frequently Asked Questions. They have developed positions on a number of issues.

CECC tends to serve as an excellent barometer of the thinking of political and academic elites in the United States about issues touching on China and the official American line developed in connection with those issues. As such it is an important source of information about the way official and academic sectors think about China. As one can imagine many of the positions of the CECC are critical of current Chinese policies and institutions (for some analysis see CECC).

CECC periodically organizes events that are meant to foreground issues and relationship areas with China that are of greater importance. To those ends, CECC has announced a hearing on fishing dual purpose fishing fleets and their projection of  the power of resource exploitation in and around the territorial waters of foreign states. It is entitled:  "Dark Nets, Illicit Labor—Confronting China’s IUU Fishing and Seafood Supply Chain." It is particularly interesting for the way ion which the hearing is meant to suggest fishing as a point of intersection of environmental, sovereignty, and human rights issuers. It is also meant to spotlight the way that the US will respond under the policy premises of America First. CECC has described the hearing this way:

Thursday, April 16, 2026 10:00 am
562 Dirksen Senate Office Building

Event Type: Hearing

The PRC has expanded its use of subsidized and aggressive illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing practices, threatening maritime security globally, distorting seafood markets, harming U.S. economic interests, and enabling serious human rights abuses in the seafood supply chain. This hearing will examine the economic, human rights, and strategic implications of the Chinese Communist Party’s role in IUU fishing and illicit labor in the seafood sector, including the use of Uyghur and North Korean forced labor in processing facilities and on distant-water fishing vessels.

This hearing will focus on (1) use of forced labor in China’s fishing fleets and the enforcement of existing laws on forced labor imports and Withhold Release Orders targeting those fleets; (2) the strategic and economic implications of the PRC’s IUU fishing practices and the current U.S. response; (3) U.S. efforts to support allies and partners in combating IUU fishing and strengthening enforcement on the high seas, and (4) the transfer and exploitation of Uyghur and North Korean labor in China-based seafood production and on PRC-linked fishing vessels. The hearing will also explore policy options to strengthen U.S. enforcement capacity, protect American markets from illegal seafood, and advance bipartisan legislative initiatives such as the FISH Act.

The hearing will be livestreamed on the CECC’s YouTube channel. Witnesses:

Ian Urbina, Director and Founder of The Outlaw Ocean Project; RADM Scott Clendenin (Ret), Owner, Dog Zebra Solutions, LLC.

For those unable to attend, the hearing will be livestreamed via the CECC’s YouTube Channel.

Pix Credit The Guardian