A tax loophole Shein exploited to become the U.S.’s largest fast fashion retailer might help it skirt a new ban on forced labor too

A law to crack down on China’s alleged use of forced labor was one of the few pieces of legislation the U.S. Congress could agree on last year. When the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act unanimously passed both the House and Senate and became law in December, one of its sponsors, Sen. Marco Rubio (R–Fla.), called it “the most important and impactful action taken thus far by the United States to hold the Chinese Communist Party accountable for their use of slave labor.” Another sponsor, Sen. Jeff Merkley (D–Ore.) said the law “sends a powerful, bipartisan message that the United States will not turn a blind eye” to China’s violations of human rights.