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Does Shein use forced-labor cotton from China’s controversial Xinjiang region? Three U.S. senators, for one, want to know.
“We are concerned that American consumers may be inadvertently purchasing apparel made in part with cotton grown, picked and processed using forced labor,” wrote Republican Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Democrats Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island in a letter dated Feb. 9 to Chris Xu, the Chinese e-tail phenom’s publicity-shy CEO.
Cassidy, Warren and Whitehouse said they were following up with a November Bloomberg report that used isotopic testing to find traces of Xinjiang cotton in garments ordered from Shein—pronounced “she-in”—on two separate occasions.
The Gen Z darling, whose $19 dresses and $11 swimsuits have made it the toast of TikTok, didn’t dispute the results at the time. Nor did it say whether it used cotton from the northwestern territory, where the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has carried out a systematic campaign of repression against Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslim minorities. Instead, Shein said it takes steps in all its global markets “to ensure we comply with local laws and regulations.”
The lawmakers are now seeking answers from the world’s most Googled fashion company, ideally within the next 30 days, to “assist in our oversight” of Sections 307 of the 1930 Tariff Act, which bans any product mined, produced or manufactured wholly or in part by forced labor from being imported into the United States. They also expressed concern that Shein may be “pursuing a strategy” to price shipments under de minimis value to avoid scrutiny under the exemption provided by Section 321.
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“Cotton is designated as a ‘high priority sector’ in statute for enforcement,” the senators said of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA), a U.S. regulation that prohibits all products from Xinjiang on the rebuttable presumption that they are tainted with modern slavery.
“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...