U.S. Senators Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health Policy, sent a bipartisan letter to U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent outlining a strategy to counter illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing conducted by China’s distant-water fleet. The letter identifies vulnerabilities in China’s IUU fishing fleet linked to its reliance on a relatively limited number of support vessels, calls for the imposition of sanctions on such vessels, and specifically identifies 29 currently unsanctioned vessels.
The letter is co-signed by Sens. Andy Kim (D-N.J.), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), Todd Young (R-Ind.), Rick Scott (R-Fla.), and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.).
“Chinese trawl fleets ravage fish stocks in every corner of the world’s oceans without regard for any other users or future generations,” Sen. Sullivan said. “These fleets also engage in gross human rights abuses, including utilizing slave labor. I’ve led the fight against this cancer on our fisheries, authoring the Fighting Foreign Illegal Seafood Harvest (FISH) Act, which passed the Senate in March. Working with Senator Cruz and my colleagues, we’ve identified another powerful channel to target these evasive IUU fleets—by tightening the screws on the relatively few support vessels that enable Chinese IUU fleets to continue their abusive practices. We are urging Secretary Bessent to deploy the numerous Treasury Department tools and designations available to aggressively sanction these support vessels and dismantle the Chinese Communist Party’s hub-and-spoke IUU fishing scheme. Doing so will enhance the sustainability of our oceans and help support America’s and Alaska’s hard-working fishermen and our many coastal fishing communities.”
“The Chinese Communist Party is using its global distant-water fleet to conduct ecocide across at least three continents in both hemispheres,” Sen. Cruz said. “They kill endangered species by the hundreds and sharks, whales, and dolphins by the thousands, and have destroyed tens of thousands of acres of coral reefs. Their fleet uses coerced laborers, who are subjected to physical abuse, malnutrition, overwork, and withheld pay. They could not conduct these activities without supply ships, including reefers, tankers, and floating bases. The U.S. should bolster our Maritime Domain Awareness capabilities to identify these vessels, and then we should use every available option to sanction and disrupt them.”
“China’s dark fleets and forced labor threaten New Jersey’s fishing industries, our supply chains, and our national security,” Sen. Kim said. “Without action, global ecosystems and economies will suffer irreversible harm. I’m proud to join this bipartisan effort to use all of our tools to stop it.”
“Vessels that support and protect China’s illegal, unregulated fishing fleet threaten our maritime security and American’s livelihoods,” Sen. Cotton said. “We are encouraging Secretary Bessent to sanction these vessels.”
“China’s illegal fishing fleet is destroying our oceans and making it harder for our allies to fish right off their own coasts, threatening whole communities’ livelihoods and ability to feed themselves,” Sen. Coons said. “It also hurts American fishermen who are undercut by cheap, illegally harvested fish. This bipartisan letter calls on the administration to take action to protect our and our allies national and food security against China.”
“Illegal, unreported, and unregulated Chinese fishing vessels threaten the American maritime economy,” Sen. Wicker said. “It is a no-brainer that the United States should sanction these Chinese ships to protect our fishing industry.”
“China’s distant water fishing fleet continues to disrupt global and regional fishing economies,” Sen. Young said. “Through overfishing and illegal incursions into foreign waters, China seeks to undermine the global fishing industry until there is nothing left. The United States must take steps to combat these activities and promote American fishing practices, which remain the gold standard for sustainable fishing.”
“The Chinese Communist Party is evil and barbaric,” Sen. Scott said. “They are using slave labor and violating human rights on the high seas to prop up their regime, undermine America’s economy, and attack our way of life. America needs to do everything we can to end this practice, stop the oppression, and protect American workers at the same time. I will always stand up to Xi and the CCP—whether it’s cutting off these state-sponsored slave fishing fleets or blocking Chinese military companies from American markets—we need to start treating China like the enemy they are.”
“The Chinese Communist Party is committing gross human rights abuses by using forced labor on its fleet of thousands of fishing vessels that engage in illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing,” Sen. Blackburn said. “We are urging Secretary Bessent to counter this malign activity by sanctioning the support vessels that enable this Chinese water fishing fleet so we can ensure we are not doing business with them.”
Read the full letter here.
Press release provided by the Office of U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan.
