Isabel Hilton

London

Contributing Editor at Prospect Magazine

Contributing Editor,Prospect. Founder China Dialogue Trust. Visiting prof KCL. I follow China, climate change geopolitics. The usual disclaimers apply.

Articles

WMW | Waste Plastics Need Floor Value to Boost Recycling: BLOG: How to Transform Plastic Recycling

2 weeks ago | waste-management-world.com | Isabel Hilton

In an open article Isabel Hilton, CEO and Editor of chinadialogue, explains that if we valued plastic differently, we would recover its embedded energy and greatly reduce pollution both in the oceans and on land... Since the 1950s, more than nine billion tonnes of plastics have been manufactured. 90% of it has been discarded, threatening ocean life, filling, tens of thousands of landfill sites worldwide and damaging human health.
The ghosts who took vengeance for China’s polluting past

2 weeks ago | prospectmagazine.co.uk | Isabel Hilton

The history of China takes many forms. The Communist party produces official histories, of course, which support the narrative of preordained Marxist triumphs—resulting in more than a fair share of elisions and omissions. The missing chapters include the catastrophe of the Great Leap Forward and the mass starvation that followed, as well as the Cultural Revolution, while the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989 can only be discovered in the work of scholars overseas.
Old Kiln by Jia Pingwa — fighting for position in China’s cultural revolution

2 weeks ago | ft.com | Isabel Hilton

After he turned 50 and became conscious of growing older, Jia Pingwa’s thoughts turned more and more to the cultural revolution, a...
Germany’s next move could make or break green Europe

1 month ago | prospectmagazine.co.uk | Isabel Hilton

Germany has a government again—one with ambitions to revive Europe’s biggest economy and transform the country’s security profile so that it is less dependent on the United States. Faced with these two urgent priorities, the question is: what will happen to Germany’s climate ambitions? Timing matters in politics.
Kashmir’s missing peacemakers

1 month ago | prospectmagazine.co.uk | Isabel Hilton

It is sadly familiar that India and Pakistan are exchanging fire in Kashmir, attacking sites that each claim are cover for terrorist groups, and unleashing barrages of propaganda at each other and the wider world. At the time of writing Pakistan claims Indian strikes have killed 31 civilians and India blames Pakistan for the deaths of 15 of its citizens, in addition to the 26 who died in the terror attack on 22nd April. Such episodes have erupted intermittently since Partition in 1947.
What does China really think about Trump? They know about humiliation and won’t take it from him

2 months ago | theguardian.com | Isabel Hilton

Last week, Mao Ning, head of China’s foreign ministry information department, posted a blurry black-and-white clip of a moment in history. In 1953, Chairman Mao made a defiant speech of resistance to what he called US aggression in Korea. Kim Il-sung, the North Korean leader and founder of the Kim dynasty, now in its third generation, had invaded US-backed South Korea.
What Even Is Trump’s China Strategy?

2 months ago | chinafile.com | Wendy Cutler |Michael Hirson |Lizzi C. Lee |Isabel Hilton

When it comes to China, there are several different factions pushing the Trump Administration in different directions: MAGA nationalists who favor economic, cultural, and possibly military warfare against China; more old-fashioned Republicans who simply distrust the Chinese Communist Party; and the tech elite, especially Trump advisor Elon Musk, who has huge investments in China and doesn’t seem to want cross-Pacific tensions.
The flaw in Trump’s ‘genius’ China strategy

Mar 5, 2025 | prospectmagazine.co.uk | Isabel Hilton

In the blizzard of brave but possibly doomed efforts to predict what Donald Trump will do next, two stand out. One says that in this new age of strongman politics, Trump will settle for a grand bargain that abandons the Pacific to China and Europe to Russia while the United States revives the Monroe Doctrine and runs the Americas as its fiefdom.
Could Trump strike a bargain with Beijing?

Feb 16, 2025 | theneweuropean.co.uk | Isabel Hilton

Beijing’s response to Donald Trump’s opening tariff salvo last week was both calm and well prepared. “Nobody wins,” the foreign ministry spokesperson wearily repeated, “in a trade war.” China quietly burnished its image as a law-abiding and responsible global player by moving to file a complaint against the United States at the virtually paralysed World Trade Organisation. Nobody trembled at that move, but the moment brought back memories of Xi Jinping’s only personal appearance at Davos.
Taiwan’s frontline dilemma

Feb 4, 2025 | prospectmagazine.co.uk | Isabel Hilton

In a deep tunnel driven into a granite hillside, a group of soldiers crouch around a heavy field gun. They are in a fortified emplacement on the island of Greater Kinmen, two miles off the Chinese coastal province of Fujian, and their attention seems fixed on a target that lies just across the narrow stretch of calm blue sea. A little below the gun emplacement a row of rusting tanks sits on a heavily fortified beach. The guns in the tunnel are real, if antique.