Stop Uyghur Genocide details supply chain evidence to stop Shein listing on London Stock Exchange

SUG, headed by the leading Uyghur human rights campaigner Rahima Mahmut, has sent a dossier to the FCA which includes a copy of a letter it has sent to Shein group companies and senior managers. The dossier details information which it says reveals there is forced labour in the online fashion seller’s supply chain. 

SUG argues that use of forced labour in supply chains would be unlawful under the Modern Slavery Act and would mean that Shein would have to explain company profits in light of proceeds of crime laws. 

The charity says the FCA should block Shein’s application for listing on the LSE when there is good reason to believe the company’s supply chains are affected by modern slavery, potentially resulting in proceeds of crime offences.  

The letter to Shein and evidence submitted to the FCA follows correspondence earlier in the summer when SUG, represented by the human rights team at law firm Leigh Day, wrote to the FCA to ask that Shein’s bid to list on the LSE be refused. 

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission had already refused to recommend the listing of Shein for trading in the US because of concerns around labour practices in Shein’s supply chains. 

Now, Stop Uyghur Genocide has submitted a dossier which they say shows clear, identifiable links between cotton production in the Uyghur region (XUAR) and forced labour and points to publicly available evidence which they say links Shein’s supply chains to cotton produced in XUAR. 

They reference evidence submitted to the High Court in 2020 when World Uyghur Congress (WUC) was represented in a judicial review of the National Crime Agency’s refusal to investigate evidence of forced labour in the XUAR cotton industry which is retailed in the UK. The judicial review claim was dismissed but later won on appeal. 

The Court of Appeal in its 2024 judgment said of the 2020 High Court ruling: “It was accepted that there is a diverse, substantial, and growing body of evidence that serious human rights abuses are occurring in the XUAR cotton industry on a large scale. The Judge referred to a “striking consensus” as to the clear and widespread exploitation and abuses in that industry involving forced labour, and that forced labour accounts for a significant proportion of all cotton originating from China. The unchallenged evidence was that 85% of cotton grown in China comes from the XUAR.” 

SUG says that in light of the court evidence, and evidence of forced labour that has been documented separately, it should be presumed that all cotton coming from XUAR is tainted by forced labour. 

It points to results of laboratory testing commissioned by Bloomberg News on Shein garments in 2022 which revealed that cotton used in these garments originated from XUAR. 

SUG says there is therefore a real risk that Shein’s supply chains include the use of Uyghur forced labour. 

The UK Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee also published a report on 17 March 2021, in which it found that the situation facing the Uyghur people is “harrowing” and that international supply chains including in the fashion sector are complicit in the forced labour that comprises part of the systematic human rights violations they are suffering. 

Rahima Mahmut, Executive Director of Stop Uyghur Genocide, said:

“Following our initial letter in June, Stop Uyghur Genocide has served notice to the FCA, presenting evidence that we say shows the Chinese Communist Party is involved in forced labour and egregious human rights violations against the Uyghur people and other ethnic groups in the Uyghur Region, and that Shein’s supply chains are reportedly tainted by this forced labour. The notice includes findings from Dr Adrian Zenz and references Bloomberg News laboratory tests from 2022, which revealed that Shein garments shipped to the U.S. contained cotton from the Uyghur Region. We strongly urge the FCA and LSE to uphold their standards and refrain from proceeding with Shein’s IPO on the London Stock Exchange.”

Michael Polak, Barrister and Chair of Lawyers for Uyghur Rights, said:

“With Stop Uyghur Genocide’s evidence submitted, the FCA should not approve Shein’s prospectus for its reported Initial Public Offering on the London Stock Exchange because of the serious concerns that Shein’s clothing is criminal or recoverable property under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 because it is made using slavery. Doing otherwise would risk allowing British consumers to unknowingly support Chinese Communist Party atrocities, undermining consumer trust and damaging the integrity of the UK’s financial regulatory framework.”

Leigh Day solicitor Ricardo Gama, who represents Stop Uyghur Genocide, said: 

“Our client wants to make sure that the UK’s capital markets aren’t used to fund the expansion of a business which has links to Uyghur forced labour. We have specific laws in place to root out modern slavery and financial institutions must make sure that those laws are upheld. Stop Uyghur Genocide says if Shein has submitted a prospectus to the FCA for approval, it should be refused.”