Today’s digital marketplaces are omnipresent, promising competitive prices and fast delivery. More consumers have turned to these platforms in recent years, driving up online sales and helping e-commerce companies, particularly Chinese ones, rake in massive profits. China now captures a substantial share of global e-commerce.
But its dominance of digital markets is not merely the result of offering consumers more affordable and accessible goods. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) unfairly subsidizes domestic e-commerce companies, overlooks safety regulations, and is the most aggressive in the world at conducting industrial-scale espionage.
Chinese e-commerce companies, for their part, feverishly gamify the shopping experience by algorithmizing sensitive user data—employing deceptive practices that raise significant ethical and national security concerns.
In 2021, China’s Ministry of Commerce outlined e-commerce development goals in line with the nation’s 14th Five-Year Plan. With aims to top the “commanding heights of international competition,” China now views e-commerce as a key driver of technological influence. Public-private partnerships are one way the CCP has played a role, handing out tax exemptions and injecting capital to help Chinese businesses scale digital trade. The goal seems to be providing domestic companies a structural advantage in global markets.
State-backed industrial policies have blurred the line between private and public domains. Beginning with an e-commerce law in 2018, the first comprehensive regulations on online business and trade, China increased state assistance to support both the production and sale of online transactions.
At least 10 government agencies incorporated plans to expand e-commerce warehouse construction in 2024, seemingly at President Xi’s direction, and the United Front Work Department has provided lucrative government-supplied data to help domestic companies refine targeting strategies and enhance their logistical operations overseas. Former CCP officials have also served as executives for some of these companies.
TRENDING ARTICLES
Additionally, China has launched e-commerce pilot zones, cross-border areas where Chinese businesses stand to benefit from reduced tax burdens and receive legal protections. In Yancheng and Qingyuan, two cities that also run pilot zones, Chinese companies received reimbursements for fees related to warehouse leasing and operations. China plans to develop more pilot zones, adding to the 165 currently in place.
Chinese e-commerce companies are subject to China’s domestic laws, which can require them, if called upon, to hand over sensitive business and personal data to the CCP. In recent years, the CCP has expanded its legal grounds for accessing proprietary data. Since American consumers divulge personal information when making purchases, this raises serious national security risks.
Several questionable examples of Chinese companies managing private data have made those concerns palpable. Chinese e-commerce giant Temu, for instance, has forced users to navigate through confusing permission settings, potentially leading them to unintentionally opt in to personal data collection. A report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute determined that much of the data Temu collects is “likely to be shared with [China’s] propaganda system.”
Chinese e-commerce companies also have an abhorrent record of labor and product safety violations. The U.S. House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist party has linked several Temu products to forced labor programs in Xinjiang, demonstrating a direct violation of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which expressly prohibits companies from relying on compulsory labor. Meanwhile, AliExpress and Shein have been accused of selling both counterfeit and hazardous products, including children’s pajamas made with flammable materials.
Technology is transforming the way American consumers shop. Foreign e-commerce companies now have a greater impact on consumer behavior and greater control over consumer data, opening up new possibilities for abusive behavior.
U.S. policymakers need to ensure that regulations keep pace with the changes. Foreign companies must be held to high standards of transparency and fair competition that protect American consumers and their data while ensuring U.S. businesses an equal playing field.
Read the first chapter of The Woketopus right now for FREE
Today, even with President Trump’s victory, leftist elites have their tentacles in every aspect of our government.
The Daily Signal’s own Tyler O’Neil exposes this leftist cabal in his new book, The Woketopus: The Dark Money Cabal Manipulating the Federal Government.
In this book, O’Neil reveals how the Left’s NGO apparatus pursues its woke agenda, maneuvering like an octopus by circumventing Congress and entrenching its interests in the federal government.
You can read the first chapter of this new book for FREE in this eBook, The Woketopus: Chapter One using the secure link below.
The Daily Signal depends on the support of readers like you.
RELATED ARTICLES
Don’t miss the
Don’t miss the signal
