Inside Climate News investigation has identified more than a dozen journalists who have faced retaliation for reporting on environmental destruction and human rights abuses linked to projects under the Belt and Road Initiative in African countries.

In Zimbabwe, companies like Huawei and CloudWalk are accused of exporting telecommunications and facial recognition surveillance technology, facilitating extensive monitoring of journalists and bolstering authoritarian control by local regimes.​

The Business and Human Rights Centre invited Huawei and Cloudwalk to respond to allegations; they did not.