C3S ISSUE BRIEF XVI: The Dichotomy of Moral Trade-Off: Western Moral Sentiments Against Their Consumption Patterns of Chinese Fast Fashion
- Chennai Centre for China Studies
- 1 hour ago
- 2 min read
By Dharshini Renganathan, Research Intern, C3S
Guided by, Mr. MR Sivaraman IAS (Retd), Distinguished Member, C3S
Image Courtesy: Unsplash
Abstract:
This research aims to examine the recent development in the fast fashion industry in the background of unethical practises in the employment of labour which has tended to dominate the debates amongst consumers of fast fashion garments. The fast fashion goods are manufactured in China by Multi-National Companies owning well-known brands of the Western world. It is ironical that on the one hand the Gen Z that is obsessed with environmental sustainability and a consideration for labour rights continues to be the ever-increasing customer base for the fashion garments that come out of Chinese factories.
Fast fashion conquered the fashion industry from the 1990s to a point that its market was estimated to be valued at $106 billion in 2022, contributing to over half of the volume in sales of the entire fashion and apparel industry. The fast fashion industry was able to sustain and grow to become one of the largest in the manufacturing sector due to its ability to produce cheap apparel at a great speed in Asian and Latin American countries, where a large population of low wage labour is available.
China is the largest exporter of fast fashion garments since the early 2000s. China exports $165 billion worth of apparel to the rest of the world. (Rocco, 2025) Leading brands of the world, such as H&M, Zara, SHEIN, etc., have established their manufacturing units in China, where skilled labour and raw materials are available at low prices.
From the early to mid-2010s, especially post the collapse of Rana Plaza in Bangladesh, the issue of abuse of labour in sweatshops in China has drawn a lot of media attention. In spite of this, China still remains the largest player in the fashion industry, with an export market size of $165 billion between 2023-24, with 72.9% of the apparel imports of the USA coming from China in July 2025. This leads to the impression that the western consumers concern for ethically acceptable standards of production particularly in the employment of labour remains only as a sympathy by word and not action. The social pressures for improvement in standards of labour conditions in the production sector in the fast fashion industry remains only in social media rather than being real and productive of any tangible result or impact in the trade-off between low prices and ethical issues where the former seems to have prevailed.
This pattern of consumption of fast fashion shows that the consumer’s economic self-interest overrides their ethical values often seen expressed in social media. This paper would assess, by employing a study of consumer psychology and behaviour, the nature of complicity amongst the Western buyers in sustaining a model built on systematic exploitation of human labour.
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(Dharshini Renganathan is a research intern at C3S. The views expressed here are of the author's and do not reflect the views of C3S.)
