Suit Accuses Chinese Retailer of RICO Violation for Activities Against Americans
A popular Chinese fashion retailer is facing a lawsuit from American designers over claims of copyright infringement.
On Friday, CBS News reported that Shein, a popular online shopping website for trendy yet affordable clothing, is now being sued by three American designers who claim that they saw their designs replicated by the Chinese company.
The lawsuit alleges that Shein engages in a pattern of copyright infringement in order to provide 6,000 new items a day for its customers, which violates the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, known as RICO.
Three designers, Krista Perry, Jay Baron and Larissa Blintz, allege that their designs were copied and sold by Shein. The lawsuit alleges that Perry’s business has suffered as a result.
“Perry has suffered and will continue to suffer substantial damage to her business in the form of diversion of trade, loss of profits, and a diminishment in the value of her designs and art, her rights, and her reputation,” the lawsuit says.
This is just the latest headache to hit the company in the past few months. In May, a group of bipartisan lawmakers asked the Securities and Exchange Commission to ensure that the company did not use forced labor from China’s Uyghur Muslims to make their products.
But this latest charge against the company has a more direct effect on Americans, as the alleged copyright infringements by the company could threaten the economic integrity of the United States.
It appears that Shein is not only stealing the designs from these designers, but they are then selling them back to unsuspecting Americans, thereby depriving the actual American designers of the business and money that they deserve.
If this allegation is true, then this is the latest attempt at a covert Chinese operation to weaken the United States.
As China takes a more aggressive stance toward Taiwan, it is becoming increasingly likely that the United States and China will find themselves at war with each other in the near future.
In the meantime, the Chinese appear to be doing all that they can to prepare for the possibility of an armed conflict, and they have taken some drastic actions to do so.
The most egregious example of this is the spy balloon that recently flew across the country, possibly collecting intelligence on the country for the Communist Party to use in the event of a war.
But China has also taken more covert measures to weaken the country. The best example of this is TikTok, the popular social media app owned by the CCP that is allegedly harvesting the data of its American users.
While TikTok and the spy balloon are acts of espionage, the Chinese are also waging economic warfare on the United States. The pending case against Shein is an example of that.
China wants to weaken the United States economically so that it will not have the money it needs to fight a war if that is what it comes to.
Americans shopping on websites like Shein need to be careful, as they could inadvertently be giving money to our adversaries and thereby hampering America’s ability to fight back.
Hopefully, the case against Shein will be the beginning of the American fight against Chinese economic warfare.
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
