China’s Push to Market Xinjiang Seafood Faces Scrutiny Over Labeling and Labor

When China Central Television broadcast a segment in 2018 celebrating inland salmon farming, many viewers dismissed the report not as a scientific breakthrough but as a marketing ploy. The broadcast featured footage of fish swimming in western China’s arid landscapes, with narration claiming that technology had turned barren land into productive aquaculture zones. However, social media users quickly challenged the claim, arguing that the product being sold as “salmon” was actually freshwater rainbow trout priced at a fraction of Atlantic salmon.

“People expect Atlantic salmon, but we’re getting freshwater rainbow trout that costs half as much,” wrote one Beijing-based commentator. Science writer Fang Shimin was more direct, stating, “This is cheap rainbow trout being passed off as expensive salmon. If you don’t want to deceive consumers, just call it rainbow trout.”

These early distrust issues have intensified as China has aggressively expanded its aquaculture sector in Xinjiang. According to an investigation by the Outlaw Ocean Project, more than 1,000 fish farms have been established in the western region, which is characterized by desert terrain and mountainous geography. The project mapped these operations and found that seafood from Xinjiang has reached the United States, potentially violating the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA).

The skepticism surrounding Xinjiang seafood is grounded in broader global concerns about fraud. The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reported this year that while no official global estimate exists, empirical studies suggest seafood mislabeling may occur in up to 20% of international trade.

For most consumers, seafood carries specific geographic associations: salmon is linked to Norway or Alaska, cod to the North Atlantic, and shrimp to coastal estuaries. Xinjiang, by contrast, is globally recognized for its deserts, heavy surveillance, cotton production, and the Chinese government’s campaigns against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities. Positioning the region as a source of premium fish requires overcoming deep-seated associations with hardship and political repression.

Despite these perceptions, state media and officials have spent years promoting “Xinjiang seafood” as a symbol of national achievement. The narrative emphasizes fish raised in glacial meltwater, cold mountain reservoirs, and alkaline lakes near desert edges. Government data from 2023 indicated that Xinjiang became China’s second-largest producer of what it labels “salmon,” trailing only Qinghai Province.

The campaign also serves strategic geopolitical purposes. In late August 2023, Japan began releasing treated wastewater from the Fukushima nuclear disaster into the Pacific. Beijing responded by banning Japanese aquatic products and amplifying messages about the purity of Xinjiang’s glacial waters. This timing coincided with heightened international scrutiny of China’s fishing industry, including an October 2023 Outlaw Ocean Project report detailing the use of Uyghur labor transfers at seafood plants in Shandong.

Fergus Ryan, a senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, suggested that the surge in Xinjiang seafood content on platforms like Weibo and Douyin—where videos amassed over 150 million views in 2023—displayed hallmarks of coordinated amplification rather than organic popularity. He argued the campaign may have functioned as “information flooding,” drowning out negative narratives about forced labor with stories of agricultural miracles.

Beyond labor controversies, food safety remains a critical concern. In 2018, expert Zhong Kai warned against consuming freshwater trout raw due to parasite risks. More recently, antibiotic overuse in aquaculture has drawn criticism; a 2020 study in Nature found that aquaculture has the highest antibiotic-use intensity per kilogram of biomass among major animal-production sectors. Additionally, diazepam, a sedative prohibited in food animals, has been widely detected in Chinese seafood products since 2023.

In 2025, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued an alert regarding prohibited substances, including the carcinogenic drug malachite green, in seafood shipments from China. While these issues do not prove that all Xinjiang seafood is fraudulent or unsafe, they contribute to a climate of distrust where official promotion is viewed with suspicion.

Tianyun, a company exporting Xinjiang seafood to 14 countries including the U.S., denied allegations of forced labor, calling them “completely factually unfounded.” The firm stated that it strictly complies with Chinese labor laws and views the UFLPA as a politically motivated violation of fair trade principles.

Domestically, the promotion of Xinjiang seafood has evolved into a tool for reshaping regional identity. Officials have encouraged fish-themed tourism, such as a cold-water fish park in Wenquan County where visitors can tour museums and sample local delicacies. As social media activity peaked in 2023, the imagery shifted from industrial production to idyllic scenes of crystalline water and gleaming facilities, aiming to recast a historically restive region as a land of abundance and innovation.