On December 23 last year, Intel, one of the world’s biggest semiconductor firms, presented a beautiful Christmas gift to Beijing. It was an apology to the people of China for having instructed its suppliers not to source anything from the country’s northwestern region of Xinjiang. Of course, Intel’s apology was not entirely voluntary. It had been directed not to buy anything in Xinjiang by the U.S. government as part of Washington’s sanctions linked to what some have described as a f