Shein’s plans to reportedly float on the London Stock Exchange have been seen as a welcome boost in some quarters. But the Chinese founded fast-fashion giant is posing difficult questions for the City, writes Charlie Conchie Just outside the metropolis of Guangzhou in Southern China sits Nancun, an area of some 130,000 people separated from the City by the sprawling tributaries of the Pearl River. Guangzhou itself is a financial powerhouse in the Asia-Pacific region, hosting the offices of over 120 Fortune Global 500 companies and coming in 10th globally for the number of billionaire residents, according to a survey in 2020.
In Nancun, however, it is a different story. Since 2021 the district has been the centre of a firestorm for its role in the supply chain of Gen-Z outfitter Shein , where workers allegedly toil for long hours in grim conditions in the name of fast fashion. A report from the advocacy group Public Eye in 2021 sounded the alarm on conditions in the district after finding that workers at six Shein suppliers were subject to punishing 75 hour weeks in factories with blocked corridors and stairways.
In response Shein said it has built an in-house team to monitor supply-chain partners. But a report last week raised fresh concerns over the facilities and methods used to produce the thousands of tonnes of cheap clothing that Shein ships around the world every year. While it may seem a world away from the streets of London, that district is now causing a headache f.
