Isabel Hilton



Profile:
Full name: Isabel Hilton

Area of interest: International affairs, China, sustainable development, new media, climate change, environment

Journals: The Guardian

Email: [mailto:isabel.hilton@chinadialogue.net isabel.hilton@chinadialogue.net]

Website: Guardian.co / Isabel Hilton

Blog: Comments is free...

Agent: Aitken Alexander Associates

Networks: Linked in contacts



Biography:
Education: Edinburgh University: Chinese MA (Hons), including two years study in China at Beijing Foreign Language & Culture University, and Fudan University, Shanghai

Career: joined Scottish Television as a reporter, 1976; Daily Express: feature writer, 1997; The Sunday Times: feature writer, news reporter, ‘insight’ reporter, special correspondent: China; Latin America editor, assistant foreign editor (incl. covering the Falklands War from Buenos Aires), 1997/1986; The Independent: Latin American editor, European affairs editor, 1986/1991, chief feature writer, 1991/1995; The Guardian: columnist, 1997-present. Edited openDemocracy 2005/2007.

Current position/role: Commentator, print and broadcast journalist, author


 * also writes/has written for: Regular contributor to the New Yorker, New Statesman, Time, New York Times Magazine, Literary Review, Financial Times, The Independent, The Observer and The Economist

Other roles: Editor of online environment publication Chinadialogue

Other activities: Lecturer on international relations

Disclosures:

Viewpoints/Insight: New Humanist magazine (Vol.120 Issue 4): Serious intent: Laurie Taylor interviews Isabel Hilton July/August 2005

TV/Radio: Presented BBC Radio 4's The World Tonight 1995/1998; since 1999 has presented BBC Radio 3's Nightwaves (see for extended biography)

Documentaries:
 * Petra And The General - an investigation of the life and death of Petra Kelly, BBC 1994
 * Kingdom Of The Lost Boy - account of the search for the 11th Panchen Lama, BBC 1996
 * City On The Edge - documentary about economic reforms in China, 1998
 * Condemned To Live - report on the after effects of mass rape and genocide in Rwanda, 1999
 * The Caravan Of Death - on the case against ex-President of Chile Augusto Pinochet

Controversy/Criticism:

Awards/Honours: Honorary doctorate (D Litt) Bradford University, for services to international understanding

Other: Married to Neal Ascherson



Books & Debate:

 * The Nazi legacy: Klaus Barbie and the international fascist connection OCLC 11029805, 1984
 * The Search For The Panchen Lama OCLC 43728952, 1999

Latest work:

Speaking/Appearances:

Current debate: 

The Guardian:

 * no column: comment is free... blog and irregular comment pieces

Column remit: International affairs, China, sustainable development, new media, climate change, environment

Section: Comment & debate pages

Role: Commentator

Pen-name:

Email: [mailto:isabel.hilton@guardian.co.uk isabel.hilton@guardian.co.uk]

Website: Guardian.co / Isabel Hilton

Commissioning editor:

Day published:

Regularity:

Column format:

Average length:



Articles:

 * crackdown: A tweak of the tiger's tail'' - Last week's arrests reveal Beijing's fears about influences from a world it can no longer shut out - 26th February 2011
 * embassy cables: Beijing's lost patience leaves Pyongyang with little to lose'' - The revelation that China might accept the idea of reunification under South Korea could make an unstable situation worse - 30th November 2010 See: Wikileaks cables reveal China 'ready to abandon North Korea'
 * triumph for moral authority'' - When strong regimes show their fear of weak individuals, their own vulnerability stands revealed. So it is with Burma's generals - 15th November 2010 (writing in The Independent)
 * ordeal ends while another begins'' - The 33 miners, the collective stars of this modern fairy tale, have been liberated from the mine in more ways than one - 16th October 2010 (writing in The Independent)
 * causes headaches in Beijing'' - China's 'grey economy' may help handbag sales, but it reveals dizzyingly high levels of inequality - 8th October 2010
 * Google just the start?'' - As the global giant loses out in China, western firms fear the odds may be stacked against them - 14th July 2010
 * a revolution in the rough'' - Fifty years after Fidel and Che mocked golf, Cuba's regime is in thrall to this most ungreen of activities - 7th May 2010
 * Korea: a dangerous anachronism'' - Paranoid garrison states don't collapse. If Kim Jong-il's regime is to be reformed, it will be at Beijing's bidding - 1st April 2010 (North Korea: summary)
 * to hot air'' - The climate debate in the US – and so the world – is mired in political weakness and infighting - 17th February 2010
 * real Himalayan scandal'' - What's really shocking about research into the glaciers of the Himalayas is how little there has been - 20th january 2010
 * blame the Haitians for doubting US promises'' - Will the fate of this quake-ravaged nation once again be decided by outsiders? - 18th January 2010 (writing in The Independent)
 * has seen the future and knows it must be green'' - While China aims to hold the patents on tomorrow's clean technologies, the US remains in the climate change dark ages - 27th November 2009 (see: China: summary)
 * slips through China's net'' - Attempts to censor comment on events such as Obama's call for an end to internet censorship are crude and self-defeating - 17th November 2009
 * volleyball and pop have shaken China's idea of race'' - The rhetoric of solidarity has long papered over talk of ethnic unease. But two young citizens have sparked a novel debate - 16th November 2009
 * 30 missing years'' - There's one story today's celebrations won't tell: how the people lifted the party out of poverty - 1st October 2009
 * of paradise'' - The options for Tibetan refugees are narrowing as China flexes its muscles in landlocked Nepal - 10th September 2009
 * shakes off image as climate criminal with green revolution'' - Coal-hungry China's low-carbon ambitions are to its economic advantage as it jostles for position at Copenhagen with the US - 13th June 2009 (see: China launches green power revolution to catch up on west)
 * loved Bush's America. Now it is much less sanguine'' - Hillary Clinton arrives in China knowing this most crucial relationship is off to a frosty start. It may all hinge on climate talks - 20th February 2009
 * block vote'' - Faced with Chinese intransigence, young Tibetans are planning for life after the Dalai Lama - 24th November 2008
 * camera never lies. But photographers can and do'' - A stunning new twist in the story of Capa's iconic war image shows that authenticity is more than just an artistic criterion - 27th September 2008
 * Olympics party is over. Now China has to clean up'' - The games showed off the country's power and apparent wealth, but its pollution and hidden poverty must be faced - 10th September 2008
 * Its green medal hopes are lost but Beijing must race on - Failure to meet the Olympic cleanup pledge will embarrass China. If it stays ambitious, however, it can earn real respect - 31st July 2008
 * First city of the future - China's ancient capital - dating back to the 15th-century Ming emperors - withstood even the advent of Communism in 1949. But now the explosion of capitalism is transforming Beijing into a world-beating megalopolis amid a frenzy of building, commerce and art that has rocked the city's teeming millions with a new revolution - 6th July 2008
 * The healing process - Chile will never recover from Pinochet's legacy unless the victims of his regime are given justice - 30th May 2008
 * Before the flood - The earthquake in Sichuan province has raised fears of an even greater catastrophe if one or more of China's many dams were to fail - 16th May 2008
 * Ditch the tatty flag of nationalism - When it took on the games, China promised heroic efforts for change. But the torch debacle has left it snarling in a corner - 12th April 2008
 * It has been a farce, but this crisis needn't end in tragedy - Following his dramatic incursion into Ecuador, Uribe has humiliated Chávez and prolonged an endless civil war - 7th March 2008
 * Bad omen from Beijing - The arrest of a leading Aids and environmental activist doesn't bode well for China's human rights record in the run-up to the Olympics - 1st February 2008
 * It is our business - If China is to be a major investor in Britain, we cannot continue to avert our gaze when it comes to human rights issues - 18th January 2008
 * Latin America: the leaders change but the injustice lives on - They've seen off the US, for now, but their failure to change lives could lose them popular support - Sunday, 27th April 2008 (The Independent on Sunday)
 * No change at China Inc - For all the much vaunted modernisation, as the party congress begins, political reform is stuck - 15th October 2007
 * China does not want another Tiananmen Square by proxy - Beijing has protected Burma's regime till now, but a brutal response to the protests would not be in its interests - 25th September 2007
 * Greenland is now a country fit for broccoli growers - The climate is changing so quickly that a land of hunters is becoming one of farmers and fearful scientists - 14th September
 * The greatest threat to peace in Nepal is military impunity - Britain is wrong to roll out the red carpet for the head of a defiant army that so gravely imperils the path to democracy - 20th July 2007
 * China's one-party monopoly of power is coming to an end - Increasing numbers are speaking up against local tyrannies and corruption, and no longer can the state silence them - 12th July 2007
 * We must take the lead - China, now the worlds biggest polluter, will only act on climate change if we lead by example - 21st June 2007
 * A dark underbelly of mass graves and electoral fraud - Congress is questioning a Latin American policy that has left George Bush with a best friend who is a major embarrassment - 8th March 2007
 * China's green pledges are as deep as a coat of paint - Despite Beijing's much-vaunted environmental initiatives, all that counts to provincial officials is economic growth - 20th February 2007
 * A dictator dismantled - Pinochet escaped justice, but became a national disgrace as his corruption was exposed - 11th December 2006



Links:

 * Wikipedia bio