The BBC has heard allegations about working conditions at Shein. Some workers have claimed that they are working for more than 75 hours a week, which would contravene Chinese labour laws. We explore Shein’s business model. Also in the programme: South Korea’s spy agency gives new figures of North Korean soldier casualties in Ukraine; and the European island that celebrates New Year’s Day in mid-January. (Photo: A shopper carries a bag while visiting Shein's Christmas bus tour, in Manchester, Britain, December 2024. Credit: REUTERS/Temilade Adelaja)
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We're starting the program with the most unequivocal statement of Chinese power.
Chinese manufacturing power.
Beijing announced today that its trade surplus hit almost $1 trillion last year, even adjusting for inflation.
Analysts say the world hasn't seen anything like this for decades and decades, probably not since the US Factories ruled the globe in the wake of World War II.
All this is likely to fuel those Donald Trump foremost among them, who say that China's dominance needs to be tamed.
One of the fastest growing international fashion brands is Chinese.
It's Shein, a giant in what's called fast fashion.
What are the ingredients of its commercial success?
Well, the BBC has found that workers in Chinese factories making clothes for Shein are laboring more than 75 hours a week in contravention of the country's labor laws.
These working hours aren't unusual in the southern city of Guangzhou, but the BBC's findings will add to a growing list of questions about working conditions in its factories.
China correspondent Laura Bicker spent the day speaking to workers from dusk till dawn in the so called Xi'an village to try to find out how the company makes its cut price clothing.
We're in the beating heart of a global empire.
The machines seldom stop in this fact producing clothes for the fast fashion giant Shein.