Rubio Urges Fellow Senators to Hold Chinese Fast Fashion Company Accountable

You may’ve heard of the apparel brand, Shein. Known for its cheap clothing mostly catered to women, Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) is looking to make sure that his colleagues in the upper chamber are aware of the company’s origins and actions.

According to Sen. Rubio’s recent press release, Shein – a company founded in China – uses cotton connected to slave labor in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Moreover, the company “has recently hired lobbyists in the U.S. to advocate on its behalf to Congress.”

Because of this notion, Sen. Rubio sent a letter to his fellow Senators urging them to unite on this issue and “hold Shein accountable.”

“Shein is one of the largest “fast fashion” retailers in the world, valued at $66 billion. The ‘fast fashion’ company is known for its vast, constantly changing inventory of cheap apparel, reportedly listing 6,000 new items for sale per day, on average,” stated Rubio.

He would go on to mention, “Shein is able to offer this 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.”

In December of 2021, President Joe Biden (D) signed Rubio’s Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) into law.

He would reference this bill in his concluding statement of the letter.

“Shein’s spin and legal maneuvering cannot hide its crimes. I will continue to work to enforce UFLPA, and to close the trade loopholes that allow Chinese firms to undercut American producers and escape accountability. I invite you to join me in these urgent efforts to hold accountable Shein and other companies that are complicit in genocide,” Rubio stated.

The Florida Senator has been very hard on China including the social media giant TikTok, scolding Ford Motor Company for their deal with the country, and even declaring that the United States’ hostile relations with the nation are akin to a “new cold war.”

In February, Rubio reintroduced eight bills to combat the exploitations of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), specifically.

The eight bills include the Accountability in Federal Acquisitions and Contracting (AFAC) ACT, the China Oil Export Prohibition Act, the Countering Corporate Corruption in China Act, the No Chinese Communist SURPRISE Parties Act, the American Financial Markets Integrity and Security Act, the Fair Trade with China Enforcement Act, the TSP Fiduciary Security Act, and the Turn OFF THE TAP Act.