Isabel Hilton

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.

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.

Jan 23, 2025 | prospectmagazine.co.uk | Isabel Hilton

On 23rd January 2020, China imposed a lockdown on Wuhan, a city of 11m people, in an effort to control an outbreak of a novel corona virus, Covid-19. The country had experience of such events: in November 2002, a virus that originated in bats had jumped to humans in Guangdong Province after travelling through a civet cat, an animal often sold in live markets to a public that believes that eating wild animals is good for the health.

Jan 20, 2025 | prospectmagazine.co.uk | Isabel Hilton

December is not the best month in the Polish city of Katowice. Unless you are a fan of coal-driven heavy industry, the town’s appeal is not obvious. In December 2018, the smell of coal that hung in the air was a bleak reminder to delegates of the Cop24 climate conference, hosted that year in the city, of the scale of the task. There was a bright spot, however: a large delegation from the United States who styled themselves the “We Are Still In” coalition.

Dec 14, 2024 | theguardian.com | Isabel Hilton

The late Chairman Mao, China’s former supreme leader, once called the United Front Work Department (UFWD) one of the three “magic weapons” of the Chinese Communist party (CCP). That the other two were the People’s Liberation Army and the party’s propaganda arm signals how central the UFWD has been to the CCP’s efforts for nearly a century. The operation involving Andrew must count as one of its more unusual achievements. The UFWD’s job began as neutralising potentially hostile actors at home.