Giray Fidan is Associate Professor in the Department of Translation Studies at Okan University. He is also the Director of the Confucius Institute at Okan University. His research interests are Sinology, Chinese History, Chinese Foreign Policy, and Turkish-Chinese Relations. He studied Sinology at Ankara University studied and conducted research at the Beijing Language and Culture University and Min Zu University of China. He previously served as the Director of the Foreign Languages Department at Bozok University (2010-2012). He lectured on History of Political Thougt at Ahi Evran University (2012-2013). Dr. Fidan has published three books and over 40 articles and reports about China. His books are Ottoman Firearms and Ottomans in China during the Kanuni Era (in Turkish, İstanbul: Yeditepe Publishing House, 2011), Chinese Language and Grammar (Ankara: Efil Publishing House, 2012), and The Country That Time Could Not Defeat: China (Ankara: Sinemis Publishing House, 2012).
China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and Turkey’s Middle Corridor: “Win-Win Cooperation”?
The launching of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the Middle Corridor have provided wider scope and greater potential for China, now the world’s second-largest economy and Turkey, a G20 member, to develop more extensive bilateral trade and investment ties and further advance their respective regional and global aspirations. This article examines the headway that China and Turkey have made and the roadblocks that they have encountered in enhancing their economic relations.
Since the West’s economic crisis in 2008, Turkey has been less keen to join the EU, and many Turks have begun to discuss the advantages of being closer to Asia, including China, the pivotal Asian force. China has been Turkey’s third-largest trading partner for ten years now, and this standing even excludes energy imports such as oil and natural gas. While both sides are intent on deepening relations in all aspects, some obstacles must be overcome in the near future, such as the trade deficit between the two countries, which leaves Turkey indebted to the powerhouse that is China to the tune of more than $20 billion annually.
