China’s Temu spies on users, under DHS investigation over forced-labor

WASHINGTON — The Department of Homeland Security is investigating Chinese online retailer Temu for possible violations of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which could lead to a ban from selling their wares in the US, The Post has exclusively learned.

Officials and intelligence experts tell The Post that the too-cheap-to-beat company plays an unfair role in the US market, spies on its mobile app users and relies on products made from slave labor to get its dirt-cheap pricing.

A senior DHS official confirmed to The Post that the agency has been investigating Temu for slave-labor violations, but the Biden administration has yet to take action against the retailer. [Temu] was noticeably absent from a list of 29 Chinese companies added Nov. 22 to the US’ banned list for violating the UFLPA.

Drafted and advanced under the Trump administration and signed into law by President Biden in 2021, the UFLPA outlaws the import of goods “manufactured wholly or in part with forced labor” in China, especially from Xinjiang — home to Uyghur Muslims that China has placed in forced-labor camps.

Companies found to have violated that provision are placed on the UFLPA entity list and barred from selling any products in the US.

“CBP [Customs and Border Protection]’s enforcement of this act is crucial to ensuring that goods entering the US are not the product of human suffering,” the agency has said.

The law is one of the most forceful US responses to Beijing’s “systemic use of forced labor against Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region,” according to CBP.

Launched in 2022, Temu has flooded the US and European markets with products ranging from clothing to keychains to furniture — at just a fraction of the cost [charged by any other company].

The website’s bestseller on Monday, a “luxurious faux rabbit fur throw blanket,” was listed on Temu for $12.05 — less than a third of what the same product sells for on Amazon.

Kevin Hulbert, a former senior intelligence officer in the CIA’s Directorate of Operations and CEO of XK Group Business Intelligence, told The Post that Temu’s suspiciously low prices have alarmed officials for years.

“It’s just incredible that those guys can make a dress, ship it halfway around the world and sell it for, you know, $8 or something, and so those put all sorts of US businesses out of business,” Hulbert said. “And then comes in a question of how do they do that?”

“They do it probably by having really cheap cotton in their goods and stuff, and so that’s an issue. We shockingly allow Temu to self-certify that none of their cotton comes from the Xinjiang province, which is where slave labor’s used.”

With a new presidential administration on the horizon, some national security hawks are calling on the US to take away Temu’s ability to “self-certify” that their company does not violate the UFLPA.

There are advanced technologies in the intelligence sphere to prove or disprove their reliance on Xinjiang-sourced goods by testing the origin of some products, such as cloth, Hulbert said. However, it’s unclear whether DHS has used the method on items from Temu.

“You can forensically test cotton and see where it’s from,” he noted. “If you’re wearing a cotton T-shirt right now, for example, I could take that cotton T-shirt off you, and I could test it forensically and tell you if that cotton was produced, grown and produced in Mississippi, Alabama, or if it was from Tajikistan, or if it was from China — or if it was specifically from the Xinjiang province in China. …”

The House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party in June 2023 called on the federal government to investigate the CCP-linked company in a report that alleged Temu’s business model allows the company to avoid responsibility in complying with the UFLPA unless businesses can prove the items were made without forced labor.

“American consumers should know that there is an extremely high risk that Temu’s supply chains are contaminated with forced labor,” the report said.

There are also cyber security risks with users of Temu’s mobile app that raise similar concerns to that which lead to Congress’ ban on TikTok, which was accused of spying on its users and allowing Beijing access to the data.

A senior DHS official told The Post “there’s no way I would download that to my phone.” It’s unclear whether those allegations are under investigation by the agency.

The European Union last month launched a probe into Temu, including whether the company violated its Digital Services Act with practices “linked to the sale of illegal products, the potentially addictive design of the service, the systems used to recommend purchases to users, as well as data access for researchers.”

Reps for Temu did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Published at NYPost .com on November 25, 2024. Reprinted here for educational purposes only. May not be reproduced on other websites without permission.