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 form of genocide being directed by Beijing against the Muslim Uyghur people.
There had be no demand for an apology from Beijing or the Chinese Communist Party. Instead, a “spontaneous” outpouring of anger towards Intel had erupted on Weibo (a popular but censored social media site) so virulently that Intel felt compelled to apologize for not aiding and embracing the genocide of the Uyghurs. If this sounds like George Orwell’s 1984, that is because it is.
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