The right to speak in the supply chain reflects the core competitiveness of enterprises, which is crucial for enterprises to achieve sustainable development. In the context of the increasing popularity of environmental protection, social responsibility and corporate governance, does good ESG performance help to enhance the discourse power of enterprises in the supply chain? This paper uses the data of China’s A-share listed companies from 2012 to 2020 to conduct an empirical test through the panel fixed effect model. The findings are as follows: First, better ESG performance does enhance the discourse power of enterprises in the supply chain; the main mechanism of its action is that good ESG performance of enterprises can improve reputation and alleviate financing constraints, enhance the cohesion of enterprises to customers or suppliers, and thus enhance the discourse power of enterprises in the supply chain. Second, the results of differentiating the three dimensions of E, S and G show that the better performance of enterprises in these three dimensions is conducive to the improvement of supply chain discourse power. Third, compared with private enterprises, the ESG performance of state-owned enterprises has a more obvious role in improving their supply chain discourse power. Fourth, the promotion effect of good ESG performance on the right to speak in the supply chain can reduce its business risk and improve its business performance. In theory, this paper not only expands the literature on the economic consequences of enterprise ESG performance from the enterprise itself to the whole supply chain, but also extends the literature on the factors affecting supply chain discourse power from the general characteristics or financial performance of the enterprise to ESG comprehensive performance, and further discusses the influence mechanism of enterprise ESG performance on supply chain discourse power. At the same time, based on the perspective of supply chain discourse power, it reveals the black box of ESG performance to reduce the business risk and improve the economic performance of enterprises. In practice, this paper provides important enlightenment for enterprises to explore the realistic path to enhance supply chain discourse power based on the perspective of ESG performance improvement. It also provides a theoretical basis for the government and other relevant departments to improve the relevant policies of enterprise ESG information disclosure, strengthen the supervision on the behaviors related to enterprise ESG, and urge enterprises to improve ESG performance.