Welcome to the Cynical podcast, the week of the discussion of current affairs in China, produced in partnership with SUPChina.

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We cover everything from China's fraught foreign relations to its ingenious entrepreneurs,

from the ongoing repression of Uyghurs and other Muslim people in China's Xinught foreign relations to its ingenious entrepreneurs, from the ongoing repression of

Uyghurs and other Muslim people in China's Xinjiang region to China's ambitious effort to

eliminate poverty.

It's a feast of business, political, and cultural news about a nation that is reshaping the world.

We cover China with neither fear nor favor.

I'm Kaisu Guo, coming to you from my home in

Chapel Hill, North Carolina. It's quite possible, my guest today recently wrote, that the U.S.

government has imposed sanctions on the world's most socially responsible company and one that has

been particularly beneficial to the Uyghurs. The company in question is Esquel, the world's largest manufacturer of woven shirts,

which found its Xinjiang-based subsidiary, Changzhi Esquil Textile Company Limited,

on a U.S. entity list a little over a year ago.

At the time, it strongly denied that it was using forced labor, U.S.

in its supply chain.

The potential damage to the company went beyond the loss of its biggest export market, the U.S.

It also suffered immediate reputational damage as an excellent piece by Katrina Northrop in The Wire reported.

That piece is titled Hemmed In, and while Esquel declined to be

interviewed for it, it is nonetheless a terrific story that focuses on the remarkable woman who

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