|
The
Chinese government’s
repression of
journalists at home is
well known. Less
visible is how that
machinery now reaches
far beyond its
borders—and what that
means for the
environment.
An Inside Climate News
investigation has
identified more than a
dozen journalists who
have faced retaliation
for reporting on
environmental
destruction and human
rights abuses tied to
China’s ventures in
African countries,
likely a stark
undercount. Many of
those cases involve
projects under
Beijing’s $1.3
trillion Belt and Road
Initiative, a massive
investment effort into
mines, ports,
railways, pipelines
and other
infrastructure in
mostly poor countries.
When a project carries
political weight for
both the Chinese
government and local
authorities, that’s
often when repression
happens, according to
Sarah Cook, author of
the UnderReported
China newsletter who
has studied the
country’s media
influence operations
for more than 15
years.
“If there are
muckraking journalists
or whistleblowers who
might expose
environmental issues,
it could potentially
be in the interest of
both the local actors
and the Chinese-linked
ones to put a stop to
that,” Cook said.
That suppression hides
or sanitizes
environmental and
human rights abuses,
even as Chinese
President Xi Jinping
promotes the Belt and
Road Initiative as a
model of “green”
development and
positions China as a
global climate leader.
China’s media influence campaign targets a
continent crucial to
the planet’s climate
and ecological
balance. Africa
is home to the world’s
second-largest
rainforest, vast
carbon-rich peatlands
and a quarter of all
mammal species,
including endangered
mountain gorillas,
pangolins and
chimpanzees. Its
degradation threatens
not only 1.5 billion
Africans, but also
Earth itself.
Nearly all the
journalists and
researchers Inside
Climate News
interviewed asked that
their names and
identifying
information be
withheld for fear of
reprisals. Some had
been smeared online,
doxed or threatened.
Others were surveilled
or detained. Several
said articles had
disappeared from news
sites after protests
from Chinese embassies
or companies. Many
said they or their
colleagues had been
offered cash to kill
critical stories or to
write positive ones.
More of our
coverage of the
biggest story on the
planet:
-
U.S.
citizenship will
determine how
expensive it is to
access America’s national parks beginning
next year, the
Interior
Department
announced
yesterday. Prices
for non-U.S.
residents to
purchase an
“America the
Beautiful” pass,
which grants the
holder access to
all of the
country’s national
parks for a year,
will more than
triple, rising
from $80 to $250.
-
Media
companies owned by
Rupert Murdoch
have found a
“scapegoat” in clean energy for the rising electricity prices
in New Jersey,
according to two
reports from
watchdog Media
Matters.
-
The
endangerment
finding allows the
EPA to regulate
greenhouse
gases—the primary
cause of climate
change—under the
Clean Air Act. If
the finding is repealed under Trump’s proposal,
Annual air
pollution in
Charlotte, North
Carolina, could
increase by as
much as 940 tons.
|
|
Texas Workers Keep Dying in the Heat
BY MARTHA PSKOWSKI, KEERTI GOPAL
Despite its blazing
temperatures,
Texas has no
labor
protections
for heat. That
leaves
workers,
especially
immigrants,
vulnerable on
the job.
|
|
|
Copyright © 2025 Inside
Climate News, All
rights reserved.
You are receiving
this email because
you signed up on our
website: insideclimatenews.org
Inside Climate
News
26
Court Street
Suite #1617
Brooklyn, NY 11242
|
|
|
|
