I promise you the general counsel woman is getting paid sh!t-loads to play stupid and help Shein avoid responsibility. No sympathy for her from me whatsoever.
I'm happy to see the effort our politicians made to grill them on this. I hope we can take it one step further and ban them from selling clothes to the UK. No idea about the legality of an embargo like that, but in my opinion it should be illegal to sell clothes without being able to state the factory it was made in, and the region the fabric was sourced.
Id love an embargo on all made in China products eventually, the whole country operates from a life is cheap so we can exploit it mentality, and they can't even vote out the ruling party!
if they did that it would mean opening the floodgates to most companies like chocolate, phone etc a lot of them use slave labour. Even UK companies! Shein is just one of many
I suspect her 'inability' to comment on potential forced labour in Xinjiang is because of the political implications it would carry for them within China to admit that takes place.
But in refusing to comment, she's essentially confirmed that it happens. If she genuinely believed that it doesn't take place and if Shein genuinely operated without using forced labour, it would have been an easy "no, our cotton is not from forced labour camps" answer. By not giving a straight answer, she's effectively confirmed that it happens.
The woman just didn’t “comment” on ANYTHING at all. Her being so un- prepared is such a bad look! But good; they shouldn’t be listed and should be discouraged to expand their businesses
I wonder if it’s that she’s incredibly unprepared or if she “can’t” say anything because SHEIN had a very long list of what she shouldn’t reveal. I have to imagine it’s the latter, although she was definitely floundering in her non-answers.
@ that’s probably it. Either ways; very poor strategy on SHEINs end. That being said, money triumphs all in today’s world. Now thinking about it- perhaps SHEIN is already confident that it’ll get the green flag to get listed on stock exchange; hence denying everything to not publicly admitting anything at all 🤷♀️
being "unprepared" is a very frequent trick to make the hearing stall. You don't want to say something that will get you in trouble, and you KNOW you f'd up and saying otherwise would be a straight lie, so you just don't say anything useful at all, forcing the other side to waste more time figuring out a way to get any evidence against you.
@@cjr790 literally think this is it, she's been told to just skirt the questions and wait till they can make up some corporate jargon in an email that can't be picked apart in person 😭
Very impressed by these MPs asking tough & necessary questions of these scammy companies! 👏 They came prepared & didn’t let the company representatives off the hook…anyone know where we can get a Congress like that? **cries in American** And Katie, I totally agree that the CEOs not bothering to show up for this & just sending some legal counsel was a huge sign of disrespect to the process!
@@StarBelle23 honestly i couldn’t help but compare it to some tech CEO hearings in the US where lawmakers were asking pretty bad questions and was shocked ours were so researched!
If SHEIN pays a third party to do their isotopic testing, they could falsify the data. Some external player needs to be in charge of the data reporting.
A long-term fed myself who has worked on the floor for hearings, nothing unusual about this. Written followup from the companies will be the thing to watch for. PM & pertinent cabinet ministers are in a swagger to keep their fragile jobs so their stance will be based on building & holding voter confidence: affordable goods for citizens during hard economic times (left wing) or supporting home-grown business even if retail cost is higher and infrastructures are being protected (right wing) by blocking these 2 companies with labour law technicalities (left/centre/other). Economics = poli sci: good idea to allow these companies to be traded publicly with US Prez inauguration on Jan 20? Many interlocking layers, especially global relations with China. Great chapter, KR! Happy 25♥ YOU ROCK!!!!
Don't feel bad for her. She's doing her job, she's getting paid a ton, and she's got 5 minutes of fame for this. Don't feel bad for her, she's acting this way to try and illicit sympathy from people like you. This all reminds me of Veep on the "robust" episode.
@@katierobinsonand I ran to watch!! I agree with comments that this woman is just a scapegoat when the directors of the Company won't sit there, but she knows what she's representing and so she's just as accountable. I'm glad she was pressed so hard to answer. Great analysis Katie thank you!
great video! i had no idea this was happening, so thank you for bringing it to my attention and condensing all the relevant information. the fact that shein is opening factories in leicester which is known for modern slavery definitely doesn't help their image!!
The dialogue surrounding cotton and forced labor is really interesting especially seeing it being such a big point in this hearing. I am Chinese and putting “Xinjiang cotton” in the product’s title is actually a point of pride for Chinese sellers here. Like buying Xinjiang cotton is actually considered buying better quality and more ethical. I guess in political and ethnic solidarity. Basically saying “we’re proud to support the country and this is good quality cotton”. I’m not voicing any personal opinion I just think it’s interesting.
I promise I'm not attacking you, I'm genuinely curious as to how on earth cotton coming from forced labour camps can possibly be considered ethical in any situation?
@ The whole thing is very complicated but long story short most Chinese people deny the existence of labor camps because no proof was given to the Chinese public and the whole controversy is handled more like “support your local Xinjiang farmers” media campaign etc. Thank you for being polite!
The politician that was the main speaker and asking the questions and grilling the lady got so done with her responses! Stop dancing around the table and actually sit down and explain yourself Shien!! You unethical muppets!! If someone says no comment, then you know they are guilty! Great video Katie!
Props to the committee being this strict on trying to get answers out of shein despite being desperate for fresh blood on the stock exchange. You know it’s unfortunately hefty stock when it’s fast fashion/plastic household slop, so it’s refreshing to see some integrity there Edit: 12:45 maybe I spoke too soon 😞
I guess she can't be held in contempt because it's not a court of law? Couldn't be me, though, embarrassing myself in front of that many lawmakers at once.
i have no understanding of whether she can be or not but it certainly doesn’t look good 💀 kind of in awe of how she just kept going i think i would’ve run away 😭
Sadly I feel this too, in today's world such things are done to make people think: yes the govt is standing for our interest, but in the end nothing actually changes. And people will not stop buying from these companies. The future is truly bleak honestly.
I had the same worry actually, esp when the chair said at the end it had been a "productive session" - although he did call Shein out after I hope they don't consider this job done and let them list with no more pushback 😳
I taught ESL for 20 years and I would bet money that the person who coined the name SHEIN thought it would be pronounced SHINE think StrEIsand EINstEIN . Students from non eu monocultural languages (japanese Korean Chinese) often make this mistake .
I think if we are less than 5 mins in and they refuse to answer these serious questions about slave labour then the comitee should be free to say: " Thank you for your time. However it's clear your company doesn't take the UK government 's concerns seriously nor respect our time. Therefore, since we cannot guarantee the British public you are an ethical sustainable company we have decided to deny and ban your company's expansion in the U.K. Market. " That should wake them up. We don't need anymore fast fashion rubbish!
Holy Cow. That's definitely in 'it would be funny, if it wasn't so serious territory'. Someone needs to make this into a meme, so it gets more attention.
I barely know anything about the stock market, so take this with a pinch of salt: Not saying anything does say a lot, that they are on purpose as intransparent as they can. I don't think this will work out for them in the long run (speaking of several decades). Considering all the bad press, the questionable life cycle (from the very beginning of the production to the items being disposed to illegally landfills), no serious investor should/would invest, unless it is used for quick cash. Considering that more and more people try to shop more mindfully, it doesn't seem to me to be a wise strategy to go with. I'm more afraid that Shein being on the stock market will hurt the economy (probably even world wide) more then it seems. On the other hand, facebook also made it to the stock market and they own instagram and Whatsapp... But thank you for covering it ♡
@@DragonriderEpona oh this is super interesting & def agree with ur points about changing consumer sentiments! what makes you think being on the stock exchange will hurt the economy?
@@katierobinson if people's consumption habits change in the next 10+ years, they won't as much Shein anymore. So if people buy Shein shares because they're so big, they might think it's a safe investment. When Shein starts to lose money (or they suddenly decide to just quit their business or their higher-ups take all the money or a lot of it), it will negatively impact the market and share holders will lose money, thus the economy might struggle again. I'm not sure if I interpreted it correctly, but it seems the UK really wants to stabilise their economy by getting this one big company into their stock market. So if they rely on Shein, one company, it could hurt the economy when things go south. At least that's what I've seen happening through history over and over again. (Or at least in somewhat similar manner.)
All these companies can have fun with the uk governments bureaucracy i wonder if they will fight or give up the temu guys sure will be thankful for the shein lady who the MPs seemed to really hate
That summary wrapped everything up in a pretty bow!🔥🔥🔥What a joke. Considering they want to list in the UK, they've done themselves no favours. However, money talks...🫠🫠🫠
@ if they put the right money on the table and make promises, I think the U.K. will fold unfortunately.☹️ Economically we are not in a good position at all. Money may win over morals. However, I’m an optimist so hopefully not!
I promise you the general counsel woman is getting paid sh!t-loads to play stupid and help Shein avoid responsibility. No sympathy for her from me whatsoever.
I bet ur right but something about the fact the CEO is not the one in that chair still doesn't sit right with me 😭
Agree. They might pay pennies to their manufacturers, but the ones in higher positions? That's where all the profits go.
She is without a doubt and I agree with your sentiments!
I'm happy to see the effort our politicians made to grill them on this. I hope we can take it one step further and ban them from selling clothes to the UK. No idea about the legality of an embargo like that, but in my opinion it should be illegal to sell clothes without being able to state the factory it was made in, and the region the fabric was sourced.
france is definitely trying to do something like this already so we could potentially follow in their footsteps if successful 🤝
Id love an embargo on all made in China products eventually, the whole country operates from a life is cheap so we can exploit it mentality, and they can't even vote out the ruling party!
if they did that it would mean opening the floodgates to most companies like chocolate, phone etc a lot of them use slave labour. Even UK companies! Shein is just one of many
I suspect her 'inability' to comment on potential forced labour in Xinjiang is because of the political implications it would carry for them within China to admit that takes place.
Came here to say this. China operates in a very different to most Western countries.
It's an open secret though so trying to cover it up is just a waste of time
oh I didn't think of this, ty for context!!
But in refusing to comment, she's essentially confirmed that it happens. If she genuinely believed that it doesn't take place and if Shein genuinely operated without using forced labour, it would have been an easy "no, our cotton is not from forced labour camps" answer. By not giving a straight answer, she's effectively confirmed that it happens.
Everyone in that room must have nerves of steel, I would’ve been giggling from awkwardness 😭
genuinely think I would've been asked to leave cause I couldn't control my reactions to some of the MPs💀
like go girl give us nothing!
💀 LITERALLY why did she bother showing up????
The woman just didn’t “comment” on ANYTHING at all. Her being so un- prepared is such a bad look! But good; they shouldn’t be listed and should be discouraged to expand their businesses
I've never seen someone spend so much time saying less lmao 💀
I wonder if it’s that she’s incredibly unprepared or if she “can’t” say anything because SHEIN had a very long list of what she shouldn’t reveal. I have to imagine it’s the latter, although she was definitely floundering in her non-answers.
@ that’s probably it. Either ways; very poor strategy on SHEINs end. That being said, money triumphs all in today’s world. Now thinking about it- perhaps SHEIN is already confident that it’ll get the green flag to get listed on stock exchange; hence denying everything to not publicly admitting anything at all 🤷♀️
being "unprepared" is a very frequent trick to make the hearing stall. You don't want to say something that will get you in trouble, and you KNOW you f'd up and saying otherwise would be a straight lie, so you just don't say anything useful at all, forcing the other side to waste more time figuring out a way to get any evidence against you.
@@cjr790 literally think this is it, she's been told to just skirt the questions and wait till they can make up some corporate jargon in an email that can't be picked apart in person 😭
Very impressed by these MPs asking tough & necessary questions of these scammy companies! 👏 They came prepared & didn’t let the company representatives off the hook…anyone know where we can get a Congress like that? **cries in American** And Katie, I totally agree that the CEOs not bothering to show up for this & just sending some legal counsel was a huge sign of disrespect to the process!
@@StarBelle23 honestly i couldn’t help but compare it to some tech CEO hearings in the US where lawmakers were asking pretty bad questions and was shocked ours were so researched!
AOC grills them pretty well
@@littlesometin true!
If SHEIN pays a third party to do their isotopic testing, they could falsify the data. Some external player needs to be in charge of the data reporting.
@@Goldyblob99 wouldn’t be surprised given the amount of third party testing controversy we had last year 😭
A long-term fed myself who has worked on the floor for hearings, nothing unusual about this. Written followup from the companies will be the thing to watch for. PM & pertinent cabinet ministers are in a swagger to keep their fragile jobs so their stance will be based on building & holding voter confidence: affordable goods for citizens during hard economic times (left wing) or supporting home-grown business even if retail cost is higher and infrastructures are being protected (right wing) by blocking these 2 companies with labour law technicalities (left/centre/other). Economics = poli sci: good idea to allow these companies to be traded publicly with US Prez inauguration on Jan 20? Many interlocking layers, especially global relations with China. Great chapter, KR! Happy 25♥ YOU ROCK!!!!
@@DuchessOfWales oooh this is brilliant context thank you for explaining!
6:00 help thats my MP!! shes the youngest MP in parliament rn and shes serving! rosie wrighting fyi, thought i recognised her while watching this!
@retro_aqua_ i thought her questions were v good!!!
Yessss thank you for putting this video out! I'm excited to watch!
excited to hear people's thoughts!!! genuinely got serotonin watching shein be reprimanded this hard lol
Don't feel bad for her. She's doing her job, she's getting paid a ton, and she's got 5 minutes of fame for this. Don't feel bad for her, she's acting this way to try and illicit sympathy from people like you. This all reminds me of Veep on the "robust" episode.
GIRL LET'S GOOOOOO it's here!!! thank you!!
I RUSHED to post this 😮💨
@@katierobinsonand I ran to watch!! I agree with comments that this woman is just a scapegoat when the directors of the Company won't sit there, but she knows what she's representing and so she's just as accountable. I'm glad she was pressed so hard to answer. Great analysis Katie thank you!
great video! i had no idea this was happening, so thank you for bringing it to my attention and condensing all the relevant information. the fact that shein is opening factories in leicester which is known for modern slavery definitely doesn't help their image!!
The dialogue surrounding cotton and forced labor is really interesting especially seeing it being such a big point in this hearing. I am Chinese and putting “Xinjiang cotton” in the product’s title is actually a point of pride for Chinese sellers here. Like buying Xinjiang cotton is actually considered buying better quality and more ethical. I guess in political and ethnic solidarity. Basically saying “we’re proud to support the country and this is good quality cotton”. I’m not voicing any personal opinion I just think it’s interesting.
I promise I'm not attacking you, I'm genuinely curious as to how on earth cotton coming from forced labour camps can possibly be considered ethical in any situation?
@ The whole thing is very complicated but long story short most Chinese people deny the existence of labor camps because no proof was given to the Chinese public and the whole controversy is handled more like “support your local Xinjiang farmers” media campaign etc. Thank you for being polite!
The politician that was the main speaker and asking the questions and grilling the lady got so done with her responses! Stop dancing around the table and actually sit down and explain yourself Shien!! You unethical muppets!!
If someone says no comment, then you know they are guilty!
Great video Katie!
You did great. Thanks for reporting on it
@GoDoYourOwnResearch aw ty 🥺
Thank you for covering this!
@@TheThriftedDagger 🫶🤝
Props to the committee being this strict on trying to get answers out of shein despite being desperate for fresh blood on the stock exchange. You know it’s unfortunately hefty stock when it’s fast fashion/plastic household slop, so it’s refreshing to see some integrity there
Edit: 12:45 maybe I spoke too soon 😞
I guess she can't be held in contempt because it's not a court of law? Couldn't be me, though, embarrassing myself in front of that many lawmakers at once.
i have no understanding of whether she can be or not but it certainly doesn’t look good 💀 kind of in awe of how she just kept going i think i would’ve run away 😭
As long as this hammering leads to desired outcomes, and wasn’t just sand in our eyes. I worry they will ultimately still be listed regardless.
Sadly I feel this too, in today's world such things are done to make people think: yes the govt is standing for our interest, but in the end nothing actually changes.
And people will not stop buying from these companies. The future is truly bleak honestly.
I had the same worry actually, esp when the chair said at the end it had been a "productive session" - although he did call Shein out after I hope they don't consider this job done and let them list with no more pushback 😳
I taught ESL for 20 years and I would bet money that the person who coined the name SHEIN thought it would be pronounced SHINE think StrEIsand EINstEIN . Students from non eu monocultural languages (japanese Korean Chinese) often make this mistake .
Do they do the same with other large companies? Honest question.
I think if we are less than 5 mins in and they refuse to answer these serious questions about slave labour then the comitee should be free to say: " Thank you for your time. However it's clear your company doesn't take the UK government 's concerns seriously nor respect our time. Therefore, since we cannot guarantee the British public you are an ethical sustainable company we have decided to deny and ban your company's expansion in the U.K. Market. " That should wake them up. We don't need anymore fast fashion rubbish!
Holy Cow. That's definitely in 'it would be funny, if it wasn't so serious territory'.
Someone needs to make this into a meme, so it gets more attention.
Wow way to go uk parliament! I thought all hope was lost
let's hope it translates to actual change 🤞
I barely know anything about the stock market, so take this with a pinch of salt:
Not saying anything does say a lot, that they are on purpose as intransparent as they can. I don't think this will work out for them in the long run (speaking of several decades). Considering all the bad press, the questionable life cycle (from the very beginning of the production to the items being disposed to illegally landfills), no serious investor should/would invest, unless it is used for quick cash. Considering that more and more people try to shop more mindfully, it doesn't seem to me to be a wise strategy to go with.
I'm more afraid that Shein being on the stock market will hurt the economy (probably even world wide) more then it seems.
On the other hand, facebook also made it to the stock market and they own instagram and Whatsapp...
But thank you for covering it ♡
@@DragonriderEpona oh this is super interesting & def agree with ur points about changing consumer sentiments! what makes you think being on the stock exchange will hurt the economy?
@@katierobinson if people's consumption habits change in the next 10+ years, they won't as much Shein anymore. So if people buy Shein shares because they're so big, they might think it's a safe investment. When Shein starts to lose money (or they suddenly decide to just quit their business or their higher-ups take all the money or a lot of it), it will negatively impact the market and share holders will lose money, thus the economy might struggle again.
I'm not sure if I interpreted it correctly, but it seems the UK really wants to stabilise their economy by getting this one big company into their stock market. So if they rely on Shein, one company, it could hurt the economy when things go south. At least that's what I've seen happening through history over and over again. (Or at least in somewhat similar manner.)
All these companies can have fun with the uk governments bureaucracy i wonder if they will fight or give up the temu guys sure will be thankful for the shein lady who the MPs seemed to really hate
One hour gang! 🎉
🥺🫶
That summary wrapped everything up in a pretty bow!🔥🔥🔥What a joke. Considering they want to list in the UK, they've done themselves no favours. However, money talks...🫠🫠🫠
literally, the summary alone should be all the reason we need to stop them listing but I'm not hopeful this won't just be ignored 👀
@ if they put the right money on the table and make promises, I think the U.K. will fold unfortunately.☹️ Economically we are not in a good position at all. Money may win over morals. However, I’m an optimist so hopefully not!