Lawmakers Attack Shein’s ‘Toxic’ Reputation and ‘Trade Tricks’

Policymakers are breathing down Shein’s neck—and not just in the United States.

On Wednesday, Place Publique, a French center-left political party led by European parliamentarian Raphaël Glucksmann, kicked off a campaign lambasting the Chinese e-tailer for wielding overconsumption, particularly of fossil-fuel-based materials such as polyester, as a “weapon of mass climate destruction.”

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In a petition that amassed more than 31,100 signatures by Monday, “Stop Shein” urged French economic minister Bruno Le Maire to brandish a “legislative and regulatory shield” against the type of “cultural obsolescence” promoted by purveyors of ultra-fast, super-cheap clothing like Shein, which it blames for driving harmful working conditions and environmental destruction.

Like the anonymously backed Shut Down Shein coalition, which has been lobbying with vitriolic gusto against the Nanjing-founded phenom in Washington, D.C., Place Publique takes aim at the company’s alleged use of forced Uyghur labor—something that it has repeatedly denied—and its canny use of social media and the influencer economy to whip up frenzied demand for its $9 crop tops and $15 dresses.

Shein adds more than 6,000 new items to its website every day, it said, creating a “hell of Shein” where workers, mostly in Guangdong, though there are plans to expand production to Brazil and purportedly Mexico, are forced to toil at an “infernal pace” without “rights or contracts.” The campaign wants Le Maire to block or delist any website or brand that goes above a threshold of 1,000. It referred to the Singapore-headquartered firm as a “symbol” of fast fashion that “marks the culmination of [a] delirious race for the lowest production costs.”

While the European Parliament’s recently passed corporate social responsibility due-diligence directive could rein in Shein’s “destructive power,” France could take the lead instead of waiting for its implementation, “Stop Shein” said.

“It is the responsibility of the executive and legislators to make impossible such a ‘business model’ based on the abolition of social rights and the destruction of the environment,” the campaign added. “The time for grand speeches not followed by effects on the burning planet or respect for human dignity is over.”

Over on Capitol Hill, the desire to regulate Shein continues apace.

Writing to his colleagues on Thursday, Republican Senator Marco Rubio said that action is still needed to ensure that the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) is fully implemented and enforced and that Shein’s “trade tricks” are neutralized. The Florida lawmaker underscored the Amazon-toppling app’s profligacy, saying that it’s able to offer such an array of products at “rock-bottom” prices not because of any particular competitive advantage, but because it “steals intellectual property, infringes copyrights, exploits U.S. trade law and uses fabric linked to Uyghur slave labor.” Rubio pointed to tests that found traces of cotton from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) in some of its products. Shein has been able to evade scrutiny and punishment, he said, because it ships small packages in volumes that fall under customs’ de minimis requirement.

“Shein’s exploitation of de minimis entry prevents scrutiny under UFLPA, cheats taxpayers of customs revenue, and undercuts American competitors that play by the rule,” he said. Beijing has denounced allegations that it is coercing Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities into low-wage work as part of a broader cultural and religious crackdown as a “myth.”

Rubio said that the Romwe owner is aware of its “toxic” reputation, which is why it has been on a charm offensive ahead of a potential IPO, partnering with Queen of Raw to use its deadstock fabrics and pledging millions of dollars to factory improvements and investments in childcare and housing. Shein, meanwhile, has hired lobbyists from the firms Akin Gump and Hobart Hallaway & Quayle to “protect its tax and trade loopholes,” he said. Shortly before the Christian Siriano collaborator’s entry into Brazil, the local government quietly dropped a measure to end tax exemptions for orders up to 250 Brazilian Real, or less than $52.

“Shein is even touting its own ‘third-party analyses,’ which found that only some of its cotton comes from Xinjiang,” Rubio said, referring to thousands of tests by supply chain tracing firm Oritain, as reported by Politico last week, that found that nearly 98 percent of its cotton did not hail from Xinjiang. “This study amounts to an admission of guilt, yet incredibly, Shein presents it as evidence of good corporate citizenship.”

Responding to both “Stop Shein” and Rubio’s assertions, a Shein spokesperson told Sourcing Journal that the company takes visibility across its supply chain seriously and that it is committed to respecting human rights and adhering to local laws in the markets in which it operates.

“We have zero tolerance for forced labor and have implemented a robust system to support UFLPA compliance,” the representative added. “Our suppliers must adhere to a strict code of conduct that is aligned to the International Labour Organization’s core conventions. We have no manufacturers in the Xinjiang region.”

Nevertheless, the questions from Congress keep coming. In May, Representatives Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin, the Republican chair of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, and Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois, its Democratic ranking member, sent a letter to the world’s most Googled fashion company to ask about its supposed use of the de minimis provision to sidestep the UFLPA. The same month, nearly two dozen members of the House of Representatives wrote to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to ask it to stall any potential Shein IPO until the company can prove that it isn’t harboring forced Uyghur labor. Earlier this year, three Republican and Democratic Senators wrote to Shein CEO Sky (formerly Chris) Xu to express their concern over its reported links to exploited workers in Xinjiang.

“Xinjiang’s cotton lint production provides for over 85 percent of China’s total cotton production and 20 percent of global output,” they wrote. “Considering Shein’s large, decentralized network of suppliers, we are concerned that cotton fibers harvested in Xinjiang with forced labor may have entered Shein’s supply chains.”

On Friday, the interagency Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force, led by the Department of Homeland Security, added two China-based companies—Xinjiang Zhongtai Chemical Co., which trades in industrial chemicals, and Ninestar Corporation, a laser printer manufacturer—to the UFLPA Entity List, barring their goods from entering the United States.

Representative Chris Smith, a Republican from New Jersey and Jeff Merkley, a Democrat from Oregon, chairs of the bipartisan and bicameral Congressional-Executive Commission on China, called the move a “step in the right direction” but said that an expanded Entity List is only one part of the law’s enforcement as goods with ties to Uyghur forced labor, including garments from Shein and its rival Temu, continue to infiltrate American borders. Temu did not respond to a request for comment.

“We will continue to work with the Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection toward the goal of stopping imports of forced labor-made goods,” they said, using an acronym for the People’s Republic of China. “American consumers should not be unwittingly subsidizing the PRC’s genocide in the XUAR.”

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