Shein founder emerges from shadows to hail Chinese roots

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The mysterious founder of fast-fashion giant Shein has used his first major public appearance to stress the company’s roots in China’s southern Guangdong province and to hail communist and government officials for their support in helping it grow.

Xu Yangtian’s remarks on Tuesday at an event organised by the Guangdong government contrasted sharply with Shein’s efforts in recent years to present itself as a Singapore-headquartered international ecommerce platform.

Xu had previously maintained a studiously low profile and Shein has never made photographs of him available. His emergence comes as the company faces an array of challenges, including consumer weariness and global regulatory scrutiny, as it seeks a public share listing.

The FT reported in 2024 that efforts to “de-Chinafy” Shein, seen as helping it to maintain access to international markets, had irked regulators in Beijing, who must greenlight any overseas IPO.

“Guangdong is where Shein has its roots and also where our struggle began. We are sure that, on the wave of Guangdong’s high-quality development, Shein can together with this dynamic land make ‘made in Guangdong’ the global standard for the fashion industry,” Xu said.

He pledged to invest Rmb10bn ($1.45bn) in supply chains in Guangdong over the next three years, saying leadership of the Chinese Communist Party and government in the province had given his company vital support.

“Shein’s achievements today would not have been possible without the Guangdong provincial party committee and provincial government’s attentive guidance,” he said.

Shein was founded in China’s eastern city of Nanjing, but Xu said it had nearly 10,000 partner manufacturers in Guangdong. The company also has its supply-chain headquarters in the southern province. Since 2022, its corporate headquarters have been in Singapore.

Xu was dressed in a dark business suit, a dark red tie and spectacles and wore his hair close-cropped. His remarks were given to an audience of local officials and business leaders.

In his short speech, Xu made no mention of a number of issues that have featured highly in international discussion of Shein in recent years.

Shein has been seeking to list its shares offshore. It originally sought a New York initial public offering, but later shifted its focus to London after lawmakers in the US raised concerns over labour practices in its supply chain.

It has since filed for an IPO in Hong Kong after regulators in the UK and Beijing failed to agree on wording within the risk disclosure of its proposed prospectus concerning the far-western region of Xinjiang, where rights groups allege China employs forced labour. The FT reported last July that Shein still wanted to list in London.

Xu is a native of China’s eastern Shandong province and cut his teeth sourcing products ranging from gaskets to spark plugs from Chinese factories for foreign buyers. The FT has previously reported that he was so low-key that even many Shein employees struggled to identify him.

Last week, the European Commission opened an investigation into Shein after reports its marketplace was facilitating the sale of childlike sex dolls. It is also investigating whether the app is addictive for users.

The company’s business model has also been undermined by the cancellation in the US of so-called de minimis exemptions, which exempted packages under $800 in value from tariffs. Similar efforts are under way in the EU and the UK.