How is Xinjiang’s economy holding amid US sanctions, and can China keep supporting its ‘great burden’?

This is the first in a series of stories looking at China’s Xinjiang province and how the far-western region is coping economically under a series of US sanctions over alleged human rights violations and the widespread use of forced labour.

Nine months ago, when the United States banned cotton and tomato products from Xinjiang over alleged human rights violations and the widespread use of forced labour in the region, cotton farmers in particular in the far-west region feared the worst.