A Chinese fishing company subject to U.S. sanctions has been featured on national radio in China boasting of landing a large catch of squid and sardines at a port in southern China.
The Fuyuan 8771 squid jigger, which docked at Fuzhou port in recent days, is operated by Fuzhou Hong Long Distant Water Fishing Co., which was sanctioned by the U.S. government in 2022 as a related entity to Pingtan Marine Enterprise Ltd. for alleged connections to illegal fishing and labor abuses.
The company’s general manager, Chen Cheng, appeared on China National Radio to explain the vessel’s catch – squid and sardines from the Indian Ocean and the South Pacific – was the first landing at the port this year by Fuzhou’s large distant-water fleet.
With peak season for distant-water catches commencing, Chen told CNR that he expected 200 distant-water fishing vessels to land an estimated 360,000 tons of seafood at Fuzhou port in 2024.
Fuzhou Honglong Ocean Fisheries Co. also had a large booth at the recent Fuzhou Fisheries Expo, with a giant grouper fish on display that featured prominently in Chinese media coverage of the event. State news agency Xinhua interviewed company representative Zhuo Weifeng, who said most of the fish on display, including the giant grouper, came from Indonesian waters. Zhou said the company has 170 ocean-going fishing vessels and three major fishing bases in Indonesia and claimed the company has aquaculture, fishing, and seafood processing operations in Indonesia.
Pingtan Marine was formally sanctioned by the U.S. government in December 2022. Fuzhou Honglong Ocean Fishing Co. is linked to Pingtan Marine Enterprise Ltd. in the list of sanctions published by the Office of Foreign Assets Control maintained by the U.S. Treasury Department under Executive Order 13818. Executive Order 13818 “builds upon and implements the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act and targets perpetrators of serious human rights abuse and corruption around the world,” according to OFAC.
A document published by OFAC in 2022 said Honglong was designated “for having materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support for, or goods or services to or in support of, Pingtan Marine Enterprise.”
Hong Long came to public prominence in 2018 when its license was suspended by Chinese government after Ecuador accused one of its vessels of fishing for sharks in the area of the Galápagos Islands, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
