From a store launch in Paris to an online shutdown threat in France, it's been a whirlwind day for Shein.
It's World Business Express from the BBC World Service.
I'm Leanna Byrne.
We get the latest from China's Import Expo and stocks are on the rebound after a major tech sell-off.
Well, it's been quite a day for the Chinese fast fashion giant Shein in France.
It started with fanfare opening its first ever physical permanent store, but it's ending with the French government threatening to suspend its online operations and Shein removing third party sellers from its site.
So let's go back to the start of the day.
Shein unveiled a new concession inside the historic Béthach Vémeré department store in Paris, and some brands were there were already pulling out in protest and And when the doors opened this morning, there were protesters waiting outside.
One of them was Delphine Gossier.
Yes, we asked for BHV to stop this partnership with Shane first of all, and then to consider that having trademarks coming from France and from Europe that have a real quality value, with good quality clothes tissues, things like that.
But Behashveh Marais management defended the move to let Sheen into the historic department store.
Here's Carl-Steffien Cotidien, the director of Behashveh.
The controversy is that I believe Sheen responded to the latest and took responsibility for.
We are proud to have a partner who has strongly condemned the controversy and we are happy about that because for us, this partnership can only be expressed with a trusted partner who, I believe, has shown us through the very strong actions they have taken.
But even before today, Sheen had been facing controversy in France over the online sale of childlike sex dolls, now led to an investigation by the French government.
Our Paris correspondent, Hugh Schofield, was outside Sheen's new store and can explain it all.
There's still a long line of shoppers at the front of BHV, this big landmark historic department store right in the middle of Paris.
So there are all the people who are absolutely delighted that Sheehan is opening up on the sixth floor of the department store.
And then across the road kept apart by police.
I was wondering whether the protesters might outnumber the shoppers.
But it's the other way around.
People who, you know, want to retain the French model of doing things, whereas the people who are shopping are, you know, just ordinarily not very well off.
People who want to get access to cheap but good.
I feel like she and I are definitely making a statement by setting up in the fashion capital of the world.
It says a lot about changing shopping habits.
The background to all of this, of course, often overlooked, is the fact that Biashve, this department store, like other big historic department stores which used to thrive and be the go-to places, the emporiums in the middle of our country.
European capital cities, they're in deep, deep trouble because people don't go there anymore.
They shop online or they go to out-of-town department stores.
That is why the company that owns BHV brought in Shein.
But Hugh France has just now moved to suspend the online retailer because of an outcry over childlike sex dolls.
This is a separate story, though linked in the broad sense that...
You know, what people hold against Sheehan is that it thrives in a kind of totally deregulated modern environment.
One of these aberrant sales has been of sex dolls that are clearly designed for paedophiles.
I mean, something, you know, should not be there.
And it's an incredibly embarrassing thing that this has happened just as Sheehan was opening its flagship store here.
Sheehan is all apologetic, saying this is terrible, it shouldn't have ever happened.
But the French government, which... you know, is in two minds about all this.
It knows that Shein's the future.
It knows that young people want to go to shop in Shein, but it wants to defend French clothing industry too.
It needs to make a statement and to show how angry it is about all this.
And so it's launching a procedure to suspend the website when Shein can show that it's compliant.
That was Hugh Schofield in Paris.
Now the Chinese government has announced the easing of tariffs in the US on export controls, as it welcomed businesses from across the world to a major trade exhibition.
It's hoping to use the event to sell the country as an investment partner.
After last week's meeting between President Xi Jinping and Donald Trump.
BBC's Stephen MacDonald was there.
In terms of who is putting their wares on show here, everyone from Siemens to Boston Scientific BHP, Rio Tinto Mitsubishi DuPont, Land Rover Panasonic, Nissan.
And then you've got the drug companies like Roche, AstraZeneca.
You've got banks here, insurance companies.
They're all companies trying to, I guess, push into the Chinese market.
And it's the Chinese government's way of saying look, not only are we open for business, but we want to buy your stuff.
There's also some tariff changes announced.
They sound pretty significant.
How has that been received?
Yeah, so the timing of this has got to be to do with this expo.
I mean basically, China is just fleshing out what had been agreed by Xi Jinping and Donald Trump from their end.
And so, to coincide with the opening of this expo, they've said we're ditching the 24 tariffs on all US goods, or at least putting those on pause, I should say, and getting rid of these earlier tariffs on US agricultural products.
So that's 10% or 15%, depending on which products they are.
And as a result, the US ag producers are also here.
In fact, a soybean farmer here who's representing the US soybean industry.
That was Stephen McDonald in Beijing.
US markets have opened steady after a big sell-off and out-of-hours trading, as well as in Asia, of tech stocks.
At one point, more than $500 billion had been wiped off the value of global technology companies.
Russ Mould is investment director at AJ Bell.
Russ, what prompted that sell-off?
It's a good question, Yana, but there are lots of things for investors to worry about.
The US government shutdown.
Suggestions of the American economy may have been slowing before that, after a couple of spectacular corporate bankruptcies, ongoing trade and tariff worries.
But in the end these shares have done fantastically well and there are some profits to be taken there.
So when a well-known hedge fund manager, Michael Burry the man who protected his clients better than anyone ahead of the great financial crisis announced he was betting against the share prices of Palantir and Nvidia, two AI darlings, that did persuade some investors to run for cover.
Yeah, because there is a lot of talk of an AI bubble, hasn't there, Ben?
They're hard.
I mean, NVIDIA's market capitalisation last week, stock market valuation reached $5 trillion.
That's the same as the economic output of Germany.
And much as we value NVIDIA's 36000 employees, giving them the same valuation as 84 million Germans, you can see why some people might be thinking that things are a little bit overheated.
Yeah, possibly.
But a big hammer on the opening in the US, right?
Yes.
American headlight indices very flat today.
There have been a couple of big profit warnings and share price falls.
Zimmer Biomet, a medical equipment company, is one.
Pinterest is another.
But the chip stocks, semiconductor makers like Micron, they're actually back up again today.
All right.
Russ Mould from AJ Bell.
Thank you so much.
An independent review looking into how to tackle health-related joblessness has warned the UK is sliding into an avoidable crisis.
One in five working-age adults are either not in work or not looking for work because of health conditions.
And finally, a story that's inspiring a new kind of ambition in Uganda.
Zoran Mamdani, born in Kampala, is now the newly elected mayor of New York City.
For young Ugandans, his rise isn't just political, it's professional motivation too.
Here's student Owen Mabala.
Zoran's victory has motivated me, as a young Ugandan, to feel more encouraged to apply for these jobs worldwide.
And you know, I'm young.
So I've been applying for internships and sometimes I feel very discouraged.
But right now I've been given more strength and I've been motivated.
Brilliant.
And we'll be hearing business reaction to Mamdani's election in New York later on on.
World Business Report from the BBC World Service.
And that's it from us, World Business Express and our team.
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Just search for World Business Express wherever you get your podcasts.
I'm Leanna Byrne.
Thanks so much for listening.
