The ‘Singapore-washing’ strategy starts to unwind as both China and the U.S. closely scrutinize corporate roots

Fast-fashion giant Shein recently made headlines after its elusive founder made a rare public appearance in a live-streamed speech which reaffirmed the company’s Chinese roots.

“Guangdong’s complete industrial ecosystem and first-class business environment have made Shein’s fast growth possible,” founder Chris Xu told the crowd on Feb. 24, at a forum hosted by the Guangdong provincial government. He boasted that Shein currently supports over 600,000 jobs in the Chinese province, and pledged to invest over 10 billion yuan ($1.5 billion) to fortify its local supply chain.

For years, Shein tried to present itself as a Singapore-based multinational to reassure regulators and investors worried about its ties to China. Experts think Xu’s move shows that Shein is trying to reconcile with Beijing, as the Nanjing-founded firm eyes a Hong Kong IPO following failed attempts to list in New York and London.

“Given Shein’s setbacks in the U.S. and Europe in recent years, it appears to be strengthening its ties to China and repositioning itself in the global market,” says Qu Feng, an associate professor of economics at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University.

Yet Shein was just one Chinese firm that moved parts of the company, if not the whole business outright, to Singapore over the past decade. The group includes ByteDance-owned TikTok and AI startup Manus, as companies sought to distance themselves from China and get greater access to global capital. 

Shein’s more public embrace of its Chinese ties is one example of how this strategy—dubbed “Singapore-washing” by observers—is starting to come undone. Western governments still treat Chinese-founded companies as Chinese, regardless of where they are incorporated, while Beijing expects these companies to show greater loyalty at home.

Why firms moved to Singapore

Shein was founded in 2008 in Nanjing, China, by Chinese-American businessman Chris Xu. Best known for its trendy apparel sold at ultra-low prices, the company has become one of the world’s largest fast-fashion platforms, with a major presence in the U.S. and European markets. 

The company first started planning for a U.S. IPO in 2020, but shelved those plans in 2024 following scrutiny by both U.S. and Chinese officials. Backup plans to list in London also stalled, as U.K. regulators scrutinized its labor and sourcing practices.

Shein relocated its headquarters to Singapore in 2021. It was part of a broader trend that analysts deemed “Singapore-washing,” where China-founded firms diluted their Chinese identity by relocating part, or all, of their companies to the Southeast Asian city-state.

Shein, in the eyes of Xin Sun, a senior lecturer in Chinese and East Asian business at King’s College London, tried to “straddle two boats”—adopting a Western‑friendly branding narrative while keeping its core supply chain deeply rooted in China. Chair Donald Tang tried to highlight the company’s “American values,” even as Shein relies on nearly 10,000 suppliers in China’s southern Guangdong province.

That approach was a “political miscalculation,” Sun says. Beijing saw that comment as disloyal, yet it failed to stop Western regulators from scrutinizing Shein’s business.

While moving to Singapore may be unpopular with Beijing officials, Sun notes the maneuver has recast the identity of firms like AI developer Manus.

“Manus moved everything to Singapore, in anticipation that the future market will be outside China and in the West”, Sun told Fortune, adding that the firm had shuttered almost all its operations in China. “Singapore-washing is only credible and effective for companies which fully cut off their operational ties to China.”

Manus is a leading developer of agentic AI, or tools that can automatically carry out tasks with limited human input. The company was born from a Chinese startup, Butterfly Effect—yet in 2025, the startup shifted to base its main operating entity in Singapore.

Manus was successfully acquired by Meta last December, in a deal valued between $2 billion and $3 billion. Soon after, Meta said that Manus would cut its ties with mainland China. 

Yet Chinese regulators are now reviewing Meta’s acquisition for possible export-control and national security violations, arguing that as Manus was founded by Chinese engineers and still has a Chinese parent entity, it should remain under Chinese jurisdiction.

TikTok provides another high‑profile case of the limits of moving to Singapore. ByteDance began building out TikTok’s international headquarters in Singapore around 2020, investing billions of dollars in the city‑state and basing key functions such as regional management, trust and safety, and data operations there. TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, a Singaporean citizen, repeatedly emphasized his nationality and the company’s Singapore base when testifying before U.S. lawmakers. 

Yet U.S. officials continued to see TikTok as controlled by its Chinese parent, ByteDance, leading to a legal battle over a law forcing ByteDance to divest TikTok’s U.S. operations or face a nationwide ban. ByteDance eventually agreed to set up a new joint venture that would house the platform’s U.S. user data and have responsibility for training the recommendation algorithm as a way to satisfy the law’s requirements. 

“Singapore‑washing has become less effective, as corporate backgrounds are far more transparent than before,” argues Le Xu, a lecturer at the National University of Singapore’s business school. Western regulators are no longer focused solely on where a company is legally headquartered, she adds, but increasingly examine “the entire vertical value chain—including ownership structure, supply chain, data flows, and operational control.”

Fortune reached out to Meta and Shein for further comment.

Can Chinese firms go global?

Experts say that, despite regulatory hurdles, it’s still possible for Chinese firms to build global businesses, as evidenced by the popularity of platforms such as TikTok and budget e‑commerce app Temu. Yet Chinese companies will need to navigate an increasingly volatile geopolitical environment, where choices around investment, mergers, acquisitions and data governance are scrutinized through a national security lens. 

“Chinese tech founders can no longer stay silent, as Beijing seems to be demanding public support from these companies,” says Kyle Chan, a fellow at the Brookings Institution, an American think tank. “Shein’s move suggests that it is safer in the long run to continue to play up its Chinese connections, despite the risks from Washington.”

And it’s not just Chinese pressure that’s undermining the Singapore-washing strategy. “It may also be a sign that Chinese-origin companies like Shein face too many barriers and risks from Washington to pursue a more neutral strategy,” he adds.

Some Chinese AI founders are now choosing to leave the region entirely, setting themselves up as U.S.-based companies from the outset in order to maintain access to U.S. venture funding and advanced computers. 

And if Chinese-founded firms will be seen as Chinese—no matter where they are based—then they’ll have to find different ways to go global, whether by formally splitting their domestic and international divisions, or pursuing a listing in a more friendly destination, like Hong Kong. 

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com