On March 9, the Globe and Mail, a Canadian media outlet, once again published an irresponsible story that falsely accused the Chinese seafood industries of using “forced labor.” The story, full of ideological bias, is an attempt to distort public perceptions through fabricating extremely groundless accusations.

The media outlet is spreading disinformation, and its accusation of “forced labor” in China is exactly opposite to the facts. There is no such thing as “forced labor” of any kind, anywhere or in any industry in China. China is a country under the rule of law. The Chinese government has ratified 28 International Labour Organization conventions, including the Forced Labour Convention(1930). China applies international labor and human rights standards in its legislation, policy-making and policy implementation, to effectively safeguard workers’rights. China opposes forced labor.

The media outlet chooses to be purposefully negligent of the forced labour in western countries including the U.S. and Canada. The U.S. has not yet ratified the Forced Labour Convention (1930) till this day. In history, more than 12.5 million Africans were shipped to the Americans for forced labour. A U.S. academic institution reveals that at least 500,000 people in the U.S. are living under modern slavery and forced labour in the U.S. Statistics from the U.S. government show that half of the 100,000 people trafficked into the U.S. each year for forced labour are minors. Canada is no better than its neighbour in this regard. Many black and indigenous people in Canada had been forced into slavery. Some cities even had auction blocks where enslaved people were sold. The Canadian government has made it clear that even today, people of African descent have faced significant racial segregation, discrimination, prejudice, and inequality in Canadian society, which is a legacy of enslavement.

If the media outlet is indeed concerned about protecting the rights of the workers, they should inquire about reasons behind the U.S. government’s not ratifying these International Labour conventions; they should investigate into the abuses imposed on indigenous children in Canada; they should reflect upon the countless crimes committed by the systematic racism in the U.S. and Canada. We recommend the certain Canadian media outlet take a hard look in the mirror and reflect upon the serious human right problems in their own country instead of getting obsessed with spreading disinformation to defame China on the basis of ideological bias.