The letters demanding US federal investigations arrived with righteous political fury this week. Attorney General Ken Paxton thundered about hazardous materials and forced labour in Texas warehouses. Senator Cotton indicted Communist Chinese platforms for design theft. America’s growing moral panic over Shein and Temu makes for excellent television. But let’s pause before applauding this sudden regulatory awakening.

We have reached peak farce when politicians who spent decades enabling bargain basement globalisation suddenly discover outrage over its consequences. The awkward truth they avoid? This business model didn’t spring fully formed from Beijing’s evil genius. We incubated it through apathy, greed, and now, selective amnesia.

Consider the cognitive dissonance at play. First, we celebrate these platforms as democratising force. Venture capitalists donate executive summaries waxing lyrical about supply chain innovations. Instagram influencers earn six figures promoting chaos hauls. The entire Western appetite for disposability addictively fed, with products landing on doorsteps faster than moral qualms.

Then, when the allegations become too graphic to ignore - 16 hour factory shifts, toxic chemicals in toddler dresses, entire fashion collections lifted from indy designers - we feign shock. How dreadful they’ve become. As if the $12 cocktail dress didn’t always carry invisible cost tags reading exploited labour and environmental vandalism. This isn’t an exposé, it’s confirmation of business fundamentals we willfully ignored.

New research this week suggests 32% of fashion consumers admit knowing about labour abuse allegations against Shein but still purchase due to price. That statistic should end any sanctimonious lecture about Chinese corporate ethics. This is transactional amnesia on an industrial scale.

Let’s navigate three inconvenient angles politicians carefully sidestep. First, the US de minimis rule exempted these very shipments from tariffs and oversight for years. When Washington finally abolished this corporate welfare in August, suddenly warehouses overflowed with suspect inventory. Regulatory neglect didn’t create this mess, but it certainly fertilised the soil.

Second, corruption flows both directions. European authorities this week revealed that 63% of fast fashion returns end up incinerated or in landfill due to quality concerns. Yet Western brands continue courting Chinese manufacturers precisely because they bypass sustainability costs. The emperor demanded new clothes knowing they’d disintegrate by spring.

Third, this isn’t uniquely Chinese capitalism. Remember Nasty Gal’s sweatshop scandals? Or the Amazon warehouse investigations? Ultra fast fashion’s sins merely hold a mirror to modern commerce’s soul. We created this Frankenstein through shareholder demands for endless growth and consumers expecting infinity wardrobes at Primark prices.

None of this excuses Shein’s alleged practices. If forced labour claims prove true, the leadership deserves criminal prosecution and the business immediate collapse. But let’s not pretend this is exclusively a communist China issue. This is unfettered capitalism writ global. The uncomfortable reality remains that Shein’s carbon footprint per garment now reportedly equals three Zara dresses blended with a H&M jumper, according to recent apparel industry analysts.

Here’s what the posturing politicians ignore in their performative outrage. First, the intellectual property tribunals they’re suddenly demanding already exist. The US Consumer Product Safety Commission maintains complaint portals collecting design theft grievances since 2018. Not coincidentally, cases rose 214% since pandemic e commerce exploded. Yet enforcement budgets remained stagnant as corporate lobbying flourished.

Second, there’s profound hypocrisy in attacking Temu’s data collection practices while Silicon Valley hoovers personal information like industrial vacuums. PartialCreditagency, the independent data watchdog, last month confirmed Temu’s user tracking remains less invasive than Facebook’s advertising algorithms. That doesn’t make it ethical, but it’s telling who we reserve moral condemnation for.

Third, even forced labour prevention mechanisms require financing. Senator Cotton’s fine words about Communist platforms arrive from the same senate that refused to fund additional customs inspectors for cargo shipments in the 2023 budget. Performative politics costs nothing, genuine oversight requires investment.

The final layer of farce? Western brands now positioning themselves as ethical alternatives. H&M boasts about recycling schemes while its Cambodian factory unions report suppressed wages. Asos champions sustainability while its return rates hit 40%, dwarfing traditional retail averages. This isn’t an industry with moral high ground to occupy.

No serious analysis of this manufactured outrage can avoid the geopolitical elephant. China hawks finally found their perfect villain. Fashion becomes geopolitical warfare by other means. Yet within 24 hours of these announcements, three US private equity firms reportedly tabled Shein investment offers. Capitalism remains gloriously conflicted.

Real solutions require uncomfortable truths. First, regulating clothing imports alone achieves little. Shein’s real innovation wasn’t supply chains, but narcotically targeted dopamine marketing that fuels impulse buying. Where’s the equivalent scrutiny of the social media ecosystems enabling this addiction?

Second, consumers must confront complicity. That $8 bikini only exists because some factory absorbed human and environmental costs we outsource through wilful blindness. Demand immediate transparency about carbon and labour costs on every product page. Watch sales collapse when hidden subsidies disappear.

Third, recognise antitrust failures created this. Amazon spent years strangling competitors only for Temu to out Amazon Amazon. When monopolies define retail, the only victors are whoever masters extreme extraction fastest.

The current outrage cycle guarantees nothing changes. Shein and Temu promise collaboration, regulators issue symbolic fines, the business model continues surgically tweaked. Meanwhile warehouses across Birmingham and Berlin overflow with these same shipments under different logistics entities. Modern capitalism moves faster than accountability. Perhaps that’s the real genius behind this business model. The clothes may disintegrate after three washes, but the structural rot lasts generations.