On Monday, Senators Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) wrote letters to the Biden administration expressing concern over the Chinese-controlled online shopping app Temu, citing its connection to forced labor and international intellectual property theft — neither of which are new things for China.
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Senator Cotton wrote:
“Temu’s goods are cheap not because of fair competition, but rather because of China’s familiar combination of intellectual-property theft, government subsidies, and human-rights abuses,” Cotton’s letter reads.
“For example, Temu directly copies Amazon storefronts and then sells knock-off Chinese versions of the product at a deeply discounted rate. Temu also likely benefits from the use of slave labor.”
Senator Rubio cited China’s abuse of the embattled Uyghur minority and how they are used as slave labor:
Rubio’s letter, dated Tuesday, asks Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to investigate Temu for “for violating my Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA), and to add them to the UFLPA’s Entity List if you find them to be in violation of that law.”
Temu is known for cheap products produced by questionable methods.
Previously on RedState: What Gallagher Left Undone: Temu Still Sends You a Slave-Sewn Dress for Just $15—Tax-Free
As my colleague Neil W. McCabe reported in the story linked above, China is accused of taking no steps to ensure that any products shipped to the United States are not produced with involuntary labor.
“These results are shocking: Temu is doing next to nothing to keep its supply chains free from slave labor,” said Rep. Michael J. Gallagher in his remarks at the June 23 release of the committee’s report: “Fast Fashion and the Uyghur Genocide: Interim Findings.”
If headquarters matter, in the 10 months since the report, Temu has made itself a moving target.
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The Department of Homeland Security replied with a tepid statement:
In an emailed statement, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said the department “responds to congressional correspondence directly via official channels, and the Department will continue to respond appropriately to Congressional oversight.”
It’s important to note that China’s economy and all of the products thereof, including apps like Temu and TikTok, are controlled by the Chinese government, which is to say, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). This is the same CCP that is leaning on American businesses and harassing fishing boats from the Philippines.
See Related: China Slaps American Defense Companies With Sanctions After Learning They Support Taiwan
Biden’s Latest Claim About Trump’s Lack of Toughness on China Indicates a Man Who’s Lost It
China’s Uyhgur minority, in particular, are used as involuntary labor and have been the subject of an actual genocidal effort by the CCP (and one about which, strangely, the American left seems unconcerned) and have been herded into camps in East Turkestan, renamed by the CCP “Xinjiang,” or “New Territory.”
These are, very likely, among the workers used to produce the cheap products sold in Temu. While Senators Cotton and Rubio are correct to express their concern, there is something every American can do now, without action from Washington: If you’re using Temu, stop. If you have it installed on a phone, tablet, or computer, uninstall it. Don’t do business with the Chinese Communist Party.
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