“Do you source cotton from China?” A simple question, but one Shein failed to answer eight times during a recent hearing with the UK Business and Trade Committee.

What policymakers really wanted to get at was: does the ultra-fast fashion retailer source cotton from Xinjiang, northwestern region of China where the Chinese government has been accused of human rights abuses and forced labour? Shein has previously said it has “zero tolerance” for forced labour and that it requires contracted manufacturers to only source cotton from approved regions — but in the hearing, its representatives remained tight-lipped.