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For years, Miami Young Republicans has led the fight against Chinese Communist Party influence in Florida. Our efforts have succeeded in kicking the Confucius Institute out of our community, stopping China from taking control of transit infrastructure, and protecting young people from toxic Chinese vapes, among other notable initiatives.
One of the most pressing threats: CCP-linked e-commerce vendors, apps, and platforms, such as Temu, that spy on Florida residents and threaten consumers with illegal and fraudulent practices.
Joined by the Palm Beach Young Republicans and Florida Keys Young Republicans, we sent the letter below to Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody, requesting that she take action to protect Florida consumers from Temu and other Chinese e-commerce vendors and platforms.
Read more: Tallahassee, time to tackle Temu
Read more: Target Chinese products at the source
August 5, 2024
Attorney General Ashley Moody
PL-01, The Capitol Tallahassee, FL 32399
Attorney General Moody,
On behalf of our Young Republican clubs, we thank you for your leadership and commitment to protecting Florida residents. Your proactive stance and diligent work have been critical to our state’s safety and prosperity. Florida has been a national leader in addressing the threat from Communist China and protecting residents from Chinese Communist Party (CCP) surveillance and indoctrination. New threats have emerged that require our state’s immediate attention.
One of the most pressing threats: CCP-linked e-commerce vendors, apps, and platforms that spy on Florida residents and threaten consumers with illegal and fraudulent practices. For example, a Chinese e-commerce app more dangerous than TikTok has infiltrated every corner of the Sunshine State. Temu, a trojan horse for the CCP, has spent billions influencing Floridians to download their app, enabling them to track user movements and most sensitive information, bypassing phone security systems to read private messages, make changes to phone settings, and track notifications.
Temu’s goal is clear: invade our schools, hospitals, government buildings, military bases, and homes to harvest our personal and private data. Under China’s intelligence law, the CCP and Xi Jinping have direct access to the American data collected by Temu, effectively making it one of China’s strongest espionage tools.
In addition, Temu and other Chinese e-commerce vendors and platforms are a constant source of counterfeit or illicit products. USPTO estimates that more than 350,000 Americans are seriously injured by counterfeit products every year and more than 75% of those harmful counterfeit products come from China.
Moreover, Temu and other Chinese e-commerce vendors and platforms routinely abuse, deceive, or defraud Florida consumers using other nefarious practices such as fake reviews, sabotaging competitors’ product listings, stealing internal e-commerce data, variation abuse, and other commercial abuses.
Make no mistake, Temu and the CCP are one and the same. Thankfully, Americans across the nation have taken notice. Just last month, Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin announced a lawsuit against Temu stating, “Temu is led by a cadre of former Chinese Communist Party officials, which raises significant security risks to our country and our citizens. For my part, I will aggressively fight Temu’s efforts to profit at the expense of Arkansans’ privacy rights.”
Sadly, Temu’s app has already been downloaded more than 123 million times in the United States - and counting. The State of Florida took decisive action to ban TikTok from government phones and schools. Temu should receive the same scrutiny from Florida elected officials. Too much is at stake to wait on Washington to act.
We encourage you to take action to hold Temu accountable, secure our private data, prohibit slave-made products, protect consumers, and stop CCP state actors masquerading as business people. Our team looks forward to working closely with you to address this growing threat.
Best,
Armando Ibarra
Chairman, Miami Young Republicans
Ashton Munholland
President, Palm Beach Young Republicans
Daniel Rodriguez
President, Florida Keys Young Republicans
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