Chinese e-commerce giant PDD Holdings, which owns the online shopping platform Temu, has moved its official headquarters to Ireland from China in recent days.
A growing number of Chinese companies are trying to downplay their China ties as aggression from communist China continues to inflame tensions with democratic nations and creates increasing aversion to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in global trade.
Temu was founded in 2022 in Boston by parent company PDD Holdings Inc., which operates Pinduoduo—a cheaper version of Amazon—in China.
In a recent U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing, PDD listed Dublin as its “principal administrative office,” replacing its main office in Shanghai.
Temu isn’t the first Chinese company to make such a change.
Another Chinese e-commerce fast fashion company, Shein, which became popular in the United States before Temu, also has been downplaying its Chinese background.
In 2021, when Shein first became known in the United States, its website only said it was an “international” company, without saying where it was headquartered or mentioning China.
Today, Shein’s website states that it’s headquartered in Singapore, as well as having “principal operations centers in the U.S. and other major global markets,” but makes no mention of China.
Social media giant TikTok, which is owned by Chinese company ByteDance in Beijing, also has been denying that it’s a Chinese company.
As many as 500 Chinese companies have quietly relisted or registered in Southeast Asian countries over the past year, to hedge against political risks amid China’s escalating tensions with the free world.
“The reason to go ‘international’ is to be in line with international standards, and to make the export of goods to the United States and Europe easier and cheaper,” economist Davy J. Wong told The Epoch Times. “Due to the recent tension in Sino–European relations and Sino–U.S. relations, they want to swiftly transform into a non-Chinese company to reduce the international community’s aversion to their Chinese background.”
The motive behind PDD and other Chinese companies’ move is obvious, according to Wu Sezhi, deputy secretary-general of the Public Research Institute of Taiwan.
Security Concerns
Temu’s sister company Pinduoduo has been accused of spying on customers.U.S. security experts found that the Chinese shopping app exploited about 50 Android system vulnerabilities to allow the app to access users’ location, contacts, calendars, notifications, and photo albums without their consent. The software was found to also access users’ system settings, social media accounts, and chat history. It can prevent itself from being uninstalled and track the activity of other shopping apps.
The CCP passed an intelligence law in 2017 that stipulates that “any organization and citizen shall support, assist, and cooperate with national intelligence work in accordance with the law.”
On April 26, the Party revised its “anti-espionage law” and expanded its definition and the power of Chinese national security personnel, allowing them to ”review and retrieve data, [and] summon and inquire about property information.”
It also requires that Chinese citizens and organizations such as postal services, couriers, and telecommunications and internet service providers to “provide necessary support and assistance.”
Chinese parent companies, such as the owners of TikTok and Temu, offer domestic versions and overseas versions of their apps, seeking to allay any security concerns of international users. The overseas versions of the apps of Chinese companies store a large amount of data belonging to U.S. users.
“The Chinese government uses the intelligence law to require all Chinese companies to assist the government in intelligence gathering when necessary,“ He Chenghui, deputy secretary-general of the Taiwan National Security Institute, told The Epoch Times. ”When the Chinese government directly exerts pressure and forces private companies to cooperate, simply changing the companies addresses is just a cover-up and cannot prevent private companies from complying with the requirements of China’s intelligence law.”
Wong said: “Pinduoduo’s renamed Temu cannot avoid the rules stipulated in the intelligence law, because the organizations and citizens defined in the intelligence law are very broad, and the power of interpretation belongs to Beijing. It thinks that you are a Chinese citizen and a Chinese company, so you must cooperate with it. Even a company like TikTok cannot evade this law, as Beijing has the power to interpret its reach.”
Wu said that while Pinduoduo has changed its listed address and headquarters, it hasn’t changed its relationship with China. The binary confrontation between democracy and totalitarianism is becoming more and more prominent, he added. They must choose which value system to stand in.
“If Chinese enterprises want to continue to maintain their strength in the international community, they must embrace the values of freedom and democracy and the operating norms of society,” He Chenghui said. “Only then can they have continued development and strength.
“Otherwise, if Chinese enterprises continue to be ambivalent between democracy and totalitarianism, colluding with the Chinese regime to benefit each other, it will be difficult for them to survive the competition in the international community.”
