'Naked influence peddling': Chinese company 'dealt series of devastating blows' despite MAGA ties
FILE PHOTO: A shopper poses with bags of promotional merchandise as she visits fashion retailer Shein's Christmas bus tour, in Manchester, Britain, December 13, 2024. REUTERS/Temilade Adelaja/File Photo
WIRED reports Chinese company Shein's overtures to MAGA isn't saving it from President Donald Trump’s trade war with China.
Shein delivers low priced imports coupled with allegations of labor abuse and environmental criticism, but it also “shamelessly courted President Donald Trump, hoping to curry favor with a uniquely transactional American leader” with a fervor that few companies matched, says WIRED.
Shein — which delivers low priced imports and has faced allegations of labor abuse and environmental exploitation — “shamelessly courted President Donald Trump, hoping to curry favor with a uniquely transactional American leader," WIRED reports.
Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Kash Patel owns $5 million in company stock, and Trump appointee Deputy US attorney general Todd Blanche counts Shein as one of his previous legal clients. Additionally, WIRED reports U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer advised the company before joining the Trump administration. Shein also spent $3.9 million on federal lobbying last year and $1.49 million in the first quarter of 2025.
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Ahead of the November U.S. presidential election, east-west dealmaker Donald Tang, who serves as executive chairman of Shein Group, was “totally, chapter and verse, singing the MAGA hymn of ‘I love Trump. I love America,’” according to Michael Sobolik, a senior fellow at the conservative Hudson Institute think tank who has been critical of Shein and other Chinese companies’ lobbying efforts and met with Tang in June. And WIRED reports Shein played, “the uniquely American game of naked influence peddling, according to an eight-page internal document, “U.S. Public Affairs Campaign Working Group List.”
Jamieson Greer, then a partner at law firm King & Spalding, guided that effort with coworkers “crafting potential congressional testimony and handling investigations launched by lawmakers.” Even now, Greer’s old coworkers continue to work with Shein, according to a person familiar with the situation. None of this saved it, however.
“Trump has dealt Shein a series of devastating blows since returning to office,” writes WIRED reporter Timothy McLaughlin. “His administration imposed punishing tariffs on Chinese imports that threaten to erode the company’s price advantage, and simultaneously moved to close a crucial trade loophole called the de minimis provision that allowed the ecommerce giant to flood the US with low-cost packages shipped into the country duty-free.”
De minimis both speeds and cheapens imports by allowing packages valued under $800 to enter the US duty-free and with limited oversight.
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Shein is now raising prices in response to Trump’s tariffs, and it is likely that shipping times will increase not just for Shein customers but for anyone purchasing low-cost goods from China.
Read the full WIRED story here.
