Justice for All, a human rights group based in Chicago, called for a boycott of Chinese online retail giant Shein to coincide with the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr on Wednesday.
The group said Muslims should not buy from Shein because its products are suspected to be made with forced labor from the Uyghur Muslims.
“It is disappointing to see thousands of Muslim women and girls buy jilbabs from Shein despite widespread knowledge of their use of Uyghur forced labor,” the group said on social media last week. A jilbab is a full-body garment worn by some Muslim women.
Justice for All’s “Save Uyghur” campaign created a #BoycottSheinEid hashtag and used it to condemn the suffering of the Uyghurs under Chinese Communist oppression. The campaign noted that Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims forced into concentration camps by China have been “forced to disavow Islam,” prevented from fasting or praying during Ramadan, and forced to consume forbidden alcohol.
“Millions of Qurans have been burned and confiscated by Chinese authorities,” the group said. “Thousands of mosques have been demolished in East Turkistan.”
East Turkistan is the preferred name of the Uyghur diaspora for their homeland, which China occupied in 1949 and renamed “Xinjiang province.” Over the past few decades, China has used increasingly harsh measures to stamp out the East Turkistan independence movement and obliterate Uyghur culture, including schemes to reduce the Uyghur population through forced sterilization and abortion.
Arslan Hidayat, head of Justice for All’s Save Uyghur campaign, told Voice of America News (VOA) on Wednesday that Muslims around the world should have enough consumer muscle to help the Uyghurs by boycotting companies that exploit them.
“It is crucial for Muslims to use their consumer power to protest against the use of forced labor and to demonstrate solidarity with the Uyghur community. It is incumbent upon us to prioritize ethical consumption practices and advocate for justice for the Uyghur people,” Hidayat said.
The Save Uyghur campaign expressed dismay that thousands of Muslim women were willing to buy their attire from Shein during Ramadan, “despite global awareness of the genocide in East Turkistan.”
Shein and another carefully scrutinized Chinese online giant, Temu, hold on to those Muslim customers by offering remarkably low prices for their goods. Shein credits its low prices to an efficient business model, minimal overhead costs, and aggressive social media marketing to its 250 million online followers, while denying allegations that it uses slavery to keep costs down.
Shein does not actually manufacture its clothes, instead relying on thousands of third-party suppliers in China, which makes its supply chains difficult to track. VOA noted that independent analysts have discovered fibers of banned Xinjiang cotton in clothing sold by Stein. Under the 2022 Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA), all cotton from Xinjiang is presumptively tainted with forced labor unless suppliers can prove otherwise.
“Despite U.S. bans on Xinjiang imports, Shein’s shipments often evade scrutiny through the de minimis rule, which exempts packages under $800 from customs inspections, enabling them to enter the U.S. without thorough examination,” VOA noted.
Shein’s delivery model involves shipping packages directly to individual customers, rather than making bulk deliveries to stateside warehouses or distribution centers. This helps Shein’s shipments avoid both U.S. import taxes and the forced labor product ban.
The de minimis model might prove unsustainable, however, as customers of Shein and other retailers with similar “fast fashion” models are hearing complaints from customers about long wait times – a problem that could only be solved by establishing warehouses and distribution centers in the United States, as companies like Amazon and Wal-Mart do.
The de minimus exemption could be eliminated or severely restricted soon anyway, as U.S. lawmakers from both parties have expressed concerns about how the loophole is used to important contraband and unsafe products, including killer drugs like fentanyl.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), author of the UFLPA, in June called for a stronger congressional effort to implement the anti-slavery law against China and tighten loopholes, including the de minimis exception. Rubio singled out Shein as a prime offender and criticized the company for “hiring D.C. lobbyists to protect the trade loopholes that allow it to avoid accountability.”
Rubio said Shein is able to offer its customers “rock-bottom prices” because it “steals intellectual property, infringes copyrights, exploits U.S. trade law, and uses fabric linked to Uyghur slave labor.”
“Shein’s exploitation of de minimis entry prevents scrutiny under UFLPA, cheats taxpayers of customs revenue, and undercuts American competitors that play by the rules,” Rubio said.
In February, Rubio asked the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to “require enhanced disclosures” from Shein before approving the company’s plans for a stock IPO. Among other issues, Rubio drew the attention of SEC chair Gary Gensler to Shein’s use of Chinese data-storage requirements to shield its records from scrutiny under the UFLPA, and its use of de minimis exemptions to “avoid customs duties and inspections.”
The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission in April 2023 identified Shein as a “company of particular concern regarding forced labor violations” due to its use of Xinjiang cotton, and warned the company used small shipments to evade inspections.
In June 2023, the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party warned consumers they face an “extremely high risk” of buying products tainted with forced labor when they shop at Shein or Temu. The House report noted that over 30 percent of all packages shipped to the United States under the de minimis exemption now originate from either Shein or Temu.
Temu spent tens of millions of dollars buying ads during the Super Bowl in February, prompting renewed warnings from lawmakers and human rights activists that the company uses the de minimis exemption to skirt laws like the UFLPA.