The Trump administration recently moved to cancel the de minimis trade exemption, a policy that previously allowed low-cost imports to enter the U.S. tariff-free. This was bad news for Temu, the Chinese e-commerce giant that built its business on ultra-cheap goods flooding the American market. However, many sellers on the platform found a sneaky solution: cheating the U.S. Postal Service. As Rest of World, a global nonprofit journalism organization, recently reported, Chinese sellers on Temu have discovered how to slash their shipping costs to virtually nothing by using counterfeit postage labels that trick USPS into delivering their packages for free. This isn’t a minor scheme. Fake labels can be bought on Chinese social media for as little as 60 cents each, while legitimate shipping costs range from $4 to $10. By dodging these fees, sellers pocket massive savings while the USPS, and ultimately the American taxpayer, covers the cost. The process is simple but highly effective. Vendors purchase fraudulent shipping labels and send them to small warehouse operators in the U.S. who are willing to take the legal risk. These warehouses print and attach the fake labels before dropping the packages at USPS locations. Because the postal system isn’t designed to verify every label in real time, these packages slip through undetected and get delivered, costing the USPS millions each year. Temu thrives on rock-bottom prices, attracting millions of American shoppers looking for bargains. As many as 185 million Americans use Temu every month — a staggering figure that underscores its grip on the U.S. market. But for sellers, staying profitable while keeping prices low is nearly impossible without cutting corners. Some sellers openly admit that they would not make money if they paid for legitimate shipping. One vendor, as the Rest of World piece noted, confessed to purchasing 1,000 to 2,000 fake labels daily, reducing his shipping costs by more than 90 percent. The pressure to compete in Temu’s race-to-the-bottom marketplace makes illegal methods like counterfeit postage an attractive option. The scale of the platform’s dominance raises serious questions about how a Chinese-owned company, operating with little oversight, has been able to reshape American consumer habits while exploiting regulatory blind spots. When the Trump administration temporarily revoked the de minimis trade exemption in early 2025, some Chinese merchants stored goods in U.S. warehouses to avoid customs scrutiny, but others turned to outright fraud to maintain their margins. The real victims of this scam are Americans. The USPS, already financially strained, loses millions of dollars every year because of counterfeit shipping labels. Since the postal service is a government-run entity, those losses ultimately fall on taxpayers. Meanwhile, legitimate American businesses are being undercut by sellers who exploit loopholes to offer artificially cheap products. Small retailers and e-commerce sellers who play by the rules find themselves struggling to compete with prices made possible only through fraud. USPS workers have encountered suspicious shipping labels but often lack the manpower to investigate. Postal employees in New York City have reported seeing fake labels, yet the packages were still processed for delivery. Once fraudulent labels make it past initial screening points, there is little that can be done to stop them. Investigators describe the scale of losses as “astronomical.” The U.S. Postal Inspection Service has begun cracking down, intercepting counterfeit-labeled packages at major ports like New York and Los Angeles. In one high-profile case, mentioned in the Rest of World report, a California logistics operator pleaded guilty to defrauding USPS out of $150 million using fake postage. She now faces up to 10 years behind bars. However, despite these enforcement efforts, the scale of the fraud makes it difficult to contain. Temu’s problems go far beyond the USPS postage scam, presenting a serious economic, security, and geopolitical threat to the United States. At its core, the e-commerce giant operates through deception — dodging import tariffs, violating labor laws, and harvesting vast amounts of user data that could ultimately be funneled to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). One of the most alarming aspects of Temu is its data collection practices. A report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, published last year, reveals that Temu operates like spyware, harvesting user data far beyond what is necessary for e-commerce. Its parent company, PDD Holdings, has documented ties to Chinese state-controlled entities, and under China’s National Intelligence Law, Temu is legally required to provide data to CCP authorities upon request. This means American user data — including shopping habits, personal preferences, and potentially sensitive device information — could be weaponized for surveillance, influence campaigns, or even cyber warfare. Temu’s exploitative tactics are part of a larger strategy by Chinese firms to dominate global digital commerce while gathering vast amounts of data. Like TikTok, it represents another front in China’s strategic competition with the U.S., using economic infiltration as a tool for both financial and informational dominance. The question isn’t just whether Temu is a threat — it’s how long America can afford to ignore it. READE MORE from John Mac Ghlionn: The (Inconvenient) Truth About the War in Ukraine What All Americans Can Learn from Ellen DeGeneres’s Disastrous Escape to Europe The post Trump Closed the Door on Cheap Chinese Imports. Temu Found an Open Window. appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.