Exclusive | Chinas Temu spies on users, under DHS investigation over forced-labor violations: official

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.It was noticeably absent from a list of 29 Chinese companies added Friday to the US’ banned list for violating the UFPLA.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 UFPLA entity list and barred from selling any products in the US.“[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.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 off...