Washington, July 25 — A bipartisan group of influential US senators has urged Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to impose sanctions on support vessels that enable China's vast distant-water fishing fleet, arguing that targeting the logistical backbone of the operation would disrupt what they described as widespread illegal fishing, environmental destruction and forced labour linked to the Chinese Communist Party.

Led by Senator Ted Cruz, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health Policy, the lawmakers said China's distant-water fishing fleet depends on a relatively small number of refrigerated cargo ships, fuel tankers and floating bases that allow fishing vessels to remain at sea for extended periods while avoiding ports and sanctions.

In a letter sent on Thursday and released on Friday, the senators asked the Treasury Department to identify these support vessels and place them, along with their owners and beneficial owners, on the Office of Foreign Assets Control's Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List. The letter also identifies 29 vessels that the lawmakers say have not yet been sanctioned.

"The Chinese Communist Party is using its global distant-water fleet to conduct ecocide across at least three continents in both hemispheres," 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."

He added: "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."

According to the letter, China's distant-water fishing fleet is estimated to consist of between 2,000 and 16,000 vessels. The lawmakers said it accounted for 44 per cent of global fishing activity between 2022 and 2024, operating for 110 million hours in the waters of 90 countries. They alleged that the fleet has been linked to illegal harvesting, destruction of coral reefs and the exploitation of forced labour.

Senator Dan Sullivan said the proposed sanctions would strike at a key weakness in China's fishing operations.

"Chinese trawl fleets ravage fish stocks in every corner of the world's oceans without regard for any other users or future generations. These fleets also engage in gross human rights abuses, including utilizing slave labor," he said.

"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."

Senator Andy Kim said, "China's dark fleets and forced labor threaten New Jersey's fishing industries, our supply chains, and our national security. 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."

The letter argues that while the United States has previously sanctioned Chinese fishing vessels and their operators, Beijing has developed an extensive logistics network that reduces the effectiveness of those measures. Support ships transport catches, refuel fishing vessels, provide medical care and other services, allowing fishing boats to remain at sea without entering ports where sanctions could be enforced.

The senators contend that these support vessels are more vulnerable because they require regular access to ports, insurance, financing and commercial transactions. Once sanctioned, they said, such vessels would face significant difficulties obtaining fuel, port services and buyers for their cargo, making them liabilities rather than assets for China's fishing operations.

Other lawmakers joining the initiative included Senators Tom Cotton, Chris Coons, Roger Wicker, Todd Young, Rick Scott and Marsha Blackburn.

Cotton said, "Vessels that support and protect China's illegal, unregulated fishing fleet threaten our maritime security and American's livelihoods. We are encouraging Secretary Bessent to sanction these vessels."

Coons said China's fishing fleet was "destroying our oceans" and "making it harder for our allies to fish right off their own coasts," while Wicker called sanctions on the vessels "a no-brainer."

Young said China's distant-water fleet "continues to disrupt global and regional fishing economies" through "overfishing and illegal incursions into foreign waters." Scott accused the Chinese Communist Party of using "slave labor and violating human rights on the high seas," while Blackburn said the sanctions would help ensure the United States was "not doing business with them."

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