Sino-Turkish relations and the Belt and Road Initiative
Sino-Turkish economic relations have markedly intensified, particularly after Turkey’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) membership in 2015. Expectations of China’s potential positive role in Turkey’s economic development have been raised during the last decade. This talk presents the preliminary findings of a recent collaborative research that aims to address the gap in the literature for a concrete, data-driven examination of China’s economic inroads into Turkey. Based on a freshly compiled dataset on Chinese firms in Turkey alongside additional resources, this study makes three main arguments. First, while Chinese investment in Turkey has grown substantially, China remains a relatively minor player in Turkey’s FDI landscape and does not pose a significant challenge to Western economic influence in Turkey. Second, Chinese investments have largely flown to relatively low-value-added activities, with marginal impact on advancing Turkey’s high-technology and research and development-intensive capabilities. Finally, this marginal developmental effect stems less from Western influence or particular deficiencies of the Chinese investors but more from Turkey’s internal weaknesses in terms of labor force quality, scientific infrastructure, and bureaucratic capacity. These endemic issues limit Turkey’s ability to secure significant, transformative foreign direct investment from any country, including China.
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SPEAKER:
Burak Gürel is an associate professor of sociology and co-director of the Center for Asian Studies at Koç University in Istanbul, Turkey. Gürel earned his PhD in sociology from Johns Hopkins University in 2015. He is currently a visiting scholar at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. Gürel’s scholarly interests include political economy of development, comparative-historical sociology, and social movements, focusing on China, India, and Turkey. Gürel’s publications have appeared in the Journal of Peasant Studies, Journal of Agrarian Change, Modern China, Rural China, Review of Radical Political Economics, Social Policy & Administration, European Review, and New Perspectives on Turkey.
HOST/MODERATOR:
Kristen Looney is an associate professor of Asian Studies and Government at Georgetown University, where she teaches courses on Chinese and Comparative Politics. Her research is on rural development and governance. Her first book, Mobilizing for Development: The Modernization of Rural East Asia, was published with Cornell University Press in 2020. Through a comparison of Taiwan, South Korea, and China, the book shows that different types development outcomes were realized to different degrees, at different times, and in different ways. It argues that rural modernization campaigns played a central role in the region and that divergent development outcomes can be attributed to the interplay between campaigns and institutions. The analysis departs from common portrayals of the developmental state as wholly technocratic and demonstrates that rural development was not just a byproduct of industrialization, as many studies have presumed. Dr. Looney has previously published her research in World Politics, The China Quarterly, The China Journal, and Current History. Her research has been supported by the Wilson Center, the Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the Fulbright-Hays Program, the Blakemore Foundation, and the Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowships Program. She holds a B.A. from Wellesley College in Chinese Studies and Ph.D. in Government from Harvard University.