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How Chinese is Shein?
For the fast-fashion giant, nationality has become a vexed question.
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Shein is part of a new generation of innovative Chinese companies that has taken the rich world by storm.
PHOTO: REUTERS
The Economist
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To which country does Shein belong? The online apparel giant, headquartered in Singapore, is expected to list its shares in London in the coming months.
Earlier in 2024, Shein executive chairman Donald Tang proclaimed it to be American, by virtue of its values and the fact that it makes most of its money there. Meanwhile, most of Shein’s employees are in China, where the company was founded in 2012. All this might suggest Shein is multinational, beholden to no single country. Unfortunately, the matter of nationality is not so straightforward for a firm that straddles China and the West.
