Washington, D.C. — Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) is demanding that President Joe Biden open an investigation into the popular Chinese e-commerce platform Temu.
"This malign app is a pipeline of dumped, counterfeit, and slave-labor products from China that is also gathering massive quantities of Americans' personal data. In fact, Temu’s data gathering may be even more dangerous than TikTok’s and, according to one lawsuit, the app can access everything on your phone," Cotton wrote in a letter.
He also asked Biden to address questions about the Chinese government’s control over the app, Temu’s violations of U.S. laws and regulations, and actions the administration can take against it.
"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 continues. "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."
In the two years since entering the U.S. market, Temu has established itself as the go-to sales platform for flash deals and pocket-friendly prices.
But who's really paying the price?
According to The House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party — enslaved Uyghurs are. China is accused of committing crimes against humanity and possibly genocide against the them. Uyghurs are the largest minority ethnic group in China's north-western province of Xinjiang,
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida) has raised the red flag about Temu as well, and his Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) became law in 2021. It requires the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to block imports that use Uyghur slave labor by adding manufacturers, exporters, and other violators to the UFLPA entity list.
Cotton's letter ends with a list of questions for Biden and a May 10 deadline to answer by.
“As with TikTok and other invasive Chinese apps, Temu has no place in America,” he wrote.
Annie Gimbel
