A bipartisan group of US lawmakers has called on the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to halt the initial public offering of Chinese fast fashion giant Shein until it resolves accusations of forced labour.

A number of reports, including a 2022 expose from Bloomberg, found that many of its garments contained cotton from China’s Xinjiang region – a controversial part of the country where the government has been accused of forced labour and internment of the Uyghur people.

While Beijing has repeatedly denied any rights abuses, Government policies have included the arbitrary detention of the Turkic ethnic group in state-sponsored internment camps, forced labour, suppression of Uyghur religious practices, political indoctrination, severe ill-treatment, forced sterilisation, forced contraception, and forced abortion.

Now, a group of two dozen US representatives led by Democrat Jennifer Wexton and Republican John Rose, have sent a letter to the SEC demanding that any IPO be paused until Shein independently audits and verifies that it “does not use Uyghur forced labor as a condition of being registered to issue securities in the United States.”

The letter, seen by Reuters, said: "We strongly believe that the ability to issue and trade securities on our domestic exchanges is a privilege, and that foreign companies wishing to do so must uphold a demonstrated commitment to human rights across the globe.”

A Shein spokesperson said the company has “zero tolerance” for forced labour, and that it operates “a strict code of conduct that is aligned to the International Labour Organization’s core conventions."

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