Labubu toy supplier accused of exploiting workers in China, rights group says

A labour rights group has accused a major supplier of the Chinese company behind the wildly popular Labubu toys, Pop Mart, of exploiting workers as soaring global demand puts mounting pressure on production lines.

Labubus, toothy, furry gremlins sold under Pop Mart’s “The Monsters” line, have become one of China’s most successful cultural exports. In the first half of 2025 alone, the product line generated 4.8 billion yuan (£511 million) in sales for the Hong Kong-listed company. In August, Pop Mart chief executive Wang Ning said the company was on track to reach 20 billion yuan ($2.8 billion) in revenue in 2025, underscoring the scale of the craze, Caliber.Az reports via foreign media. 

But according to an investigation by China Labor Watch (CLW), a New York-based NGO, one of Pop Mart’s suppliers has been engaging in a range of exploitative labour practices.

CLW said it sent investigators to Shunjia Toys, a factory in Xinfeng county in Jiangxi province that employs more than 4,500 people, over a three-month period in 2025. The researchers interviewed more than 50 workers, including three under the age of 18. All were producing Labubu toys.

The investigation found that the factory employed workers aged 16 to 18 — legal under Chinese law only if special protections are applied. However, CLW said these younger workers were assigned standard assembly line jobs with the same workload and production targets as adults.

“The underage workers also generally did not understand the nature of the contracts they signed, and had no clear concept of their legal status when asked,” CLW’s report said.

The NGO also found that workers were routinely required to sign blank labour contracts.

“Workers were given no more than five minutes to complete the process and were told explicitly not to read or fill in other sections,” CLW said, adding that key terms such as wages, job duties and social insurance were left “blank and unexplained”.

As demand surged, workers reported being given what they described as unrealistic production targets. One team of 25 to 30 workers was required to assemble at least 4,000 Labubus per day. While Chinese law limits overtime to 36 hours per month, CLW said workers often logged more than 100 hours of extra work.

Shunjia Toys has an official annual production capacity of 12 million units, with plans announced in late 2025 to expand to 33 million. However, CLW said interviews suggested the factory was already producing far more. Two teams alone were estimated to be producing over 24 million units per year.

“This gap between planned capacity and actual output is not uncommon in China’s manufacturing sector,” said Li Qiang, executive director of CLW. “When market demand rises rapidly, production often expands well beyond planned levels, with the resulting pressure borne directly by workers.”

Pop Mart said it was taking the allegations seriously. A company spokesperson said:

“At Pop Mart, we take the welfare and safety of workers at our [original equipment manufacturers] factories very seriously… We appreciate the information brought to our attention and are currently investigating the matter.”

The company added that it conducts regular audits and would require corrective action if the claims are substantiated. 

By Sabina Mammadli