Employees walking out of the Shanghai No. 1 Cotton Weaving Factory in the 1960s.

China's textile industry, one of the main national industries in modern China, rose in Shanghai in the 1870s, and has since played an important role in the process of China's national rejuvenation and industrial modernization.

In 1878, Li Hongzhang (1823–1901), a Chinese politician, diplomat and military leader of the late Qing Dynasty (1616–1911), presided over the construction of the Shanghai Mechanical Textile Bureau (SMTB), the predecessor of the Shangtex Holding Co., Ltd. (Shangtex). It was the first government-supervised and merchant-managed, large-scale cotton textile enterprise in the history of China's cotton textile industry.

In the following century or more, SMTB saw its name changed several times. Starting as a traditional laborintensive manufacturer, it gradually embarked on the road to the modern textile industry by carrying out adjustments in its industrial, capital and labor structure. In 2017, the Shangtex and the Orient International Group merged to become the Orient International (Holding) Co., Ltd.

"After the merger and reorganization, we have worked hard to implement the strategy of 'global layout and transnational operation,'" said Tong Jisheng, the company's Party secretary and board chairman. "Efforts have since been made to embark on a development path of advanced manufacturing industry + modern fashion service industry as a large-scale comprehensive transnational group."