Today, Congressman Blaine Luetkemeyer grilled Treasury Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence (TFI) Brian E. Nelson on the agency’s failure to crack down on forced-labor supporter and Chinese Communist Party-linked Temu.

Watch the full exchange HERE.

Rep. Luetkemeyer: “Undersecretary Nelson, you talked a while ago about one of your duties, protecting human rights. Is that right?”

Brian E. Nelson, Undersecretary for TFI: “Yeah, yes. Absolutely.”

Rep. Luetkemeyer: “What are you doing with China?” 

Mr. Nelson: “So we've designated a number of individuals for human rights violations in China, as you know, particularly associated with the treatment of the Uyghurs.”

Rep. Luetkemeyer: “You just had a Super Bowl. Temu had a big ad in the Super Bowl. They use slave labor to make their garments— make their products. They don't deny that. They say, ‘no, we don't,’ but they don't make any effort to hide the fact that they don't really care one way or the other. Are they on your list? Are they getting ready to be on your list of sanctioned entities?”

Mr. Nelson: “I, we, under our Globe Mag human rights authorities, we take referrals from civil society and obviously—"

Rep. Luetkemeyer: “Well, there's a couple articles that just been appearing over the last week or so about them, and now they have a big ad in the Super Bowl, I mean, they're out there. I don't know why you can't do something about this.”

Mr. Nelson: “Again, I appreciate the concern, and certainly we will take on board that concern. I can't give you a potential designation.”

Background: Temu offers products tied to slave labor in the Xinjiang region of China. The House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party and other third-party researchers have produced evidence proving Temu’s role in supporting forced labor camps. Even after the investigation results became public, Temu didn’t remove the related products.