Florida prosecutor creates a unit to investigate Chinese companies like Shein

Miami.- Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced this Thursday the creation of a special unit to investigate Chinese companies with links to the Communist Party (CCP) and that "harm" American consumers, such as the online sales platform Shein. Uthmeier presented at a conference the Consumer Harm from International Nefarious Actors (CHINA) prevention unit to "counter threats from China and other foreign adversaries". The official explained that the unit will investigate companies that are "illegally" sharing data with China and other foreign governments, which "puts at risk" the information of Florida residents, as he asserted.

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"We have had a lot of work while we have investigated companies that, we believe, are sharing personal data and information with China, with the CCP and, even, with the Chinese Army. This work has reached a level where we have realized that we need people dedicated to it full time," he said in Palm Beach.

The Investigation Against Shein

In an infographic, the prosecutor stated that the unit's flagship case is an investigation against Shein, which sells cheap clothing known as 'fast fashion,' for allegedly transferring data from Florida customers to China and other foreign countries. He also recalled that the state won a ruling in November in which an appeals court upheld SB 264, which Florida passed in 2023 to prohibit most Chinese citizens from buying property located within 16 kilometers of civil or military infrastructure considered "critical." Likewise, it pointed out the cases that began last year against manufacturers of medical and household electronic products, such as TP-Link, Lorex and Contec, which it accuses of transmitting the data of patients and customers to China. You can also read: French justice rejects suspending Shein's activity as requested by the Government "We see healthcare as a primary industry at this moment where personal health data, the most sensitive human information, is being shared with an enemy that wants to harm us in the last five or six months. So we have been very active in this area," Uthmeier pointed out.