A top executive at one of China’s leading long-distance fishery firms has been elected to senior office by the Chinese Communist Party, in a sign of how politically connected the country’s fishery sector is.
Yu Xiong Wei, chief engineer at Ping Tai Rong Ocean Fishery Co. has been elected to the People’s Congress of Zhejiang Province and has promised to use his new position to “promote the long-distance fishing sector.”
Yu, who said he sees a “prosperous” future for China’s fishery sector in international waters, was selected by Communist Party selection process in Zhoushan, a major fishing port and seafood processing hub in Zheijiang Province. Like the National People’s Congress, the provincial People’s Congress meets in session once a year to vote on Communist Party proposals. It also has committees that meet during the year.
Ping Tai Rong Ocean Fishery Co. now operates 26 longliners and two reefers operating in international waters. The firm, which also runs aquaculture and food and beverage management subsidiaries, has built China’s first long-distance reefer for the tuna industry, the “Ping Tai Rong Leng 1.” After its initial voyage, the vessel returned to Zhoushan before Christmas and will set out again early in the New Year with a second new reefer.
In addition, last summer the firm launched two new tuna longline vessels, the “Pengtai Rong 316” and the “Pengtai Rong 318.”
Ping Tai Rong’s political connections were on display at this winter’s China Seafood fair in Qingdao, when the deputy mayor of Zhoushan, Jiang Jian Ming, was on hand to watch company employees cutting up a large tuna.
