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One such program was the Belt and Road Initiative. Invoking the Silk Road, the caravan route of centuries past, the trillion-dollar plan sought to extend China’s influence by building ports, roads, bridges, railroads, and other projects across Asia, Africa, and beyond.

The plan quickly raised al…

While McKinsey and its global clients expanded in China, the country’s human rights record drew international condemnation. China threw activists like the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo in jail, where he died. The Communist Party cracked down on any group that might pose a challenge to its r…

It was an electrifying time to be in China. The economy was opening up to Western businesses, and Chinese students flew off by the hundreds of thousands to get a first-class education in the United States. China’s burgeoning and largely uncontrolled internet was bursting with entrepreneurial talent…

A few days later, D’Emidio, the partner in charge of the ICE project, sent a mass email of his own. Subject: “Call for reconciliation and healing.”

In bullet points, he wrote of his deep sympathy “for those of you whose families and friends live in fear of my client,” as well as guilt “for havin…

He laid out his recommendations in bullet points. Among them: a demand that McKinsey make a public apology for working for ICE and “stop saying we would do this work again.” Another: “Stop using legality as the barometer for ethicality.” On this, he was particularly biting, adding a parenthetical p…