With the financial support of FNF, IKV and Sabancı University joint hosted a held round table meeting entitled “China in the 21st Century: Partner or Competitor?” on 8 November 2019. The opening speeches of IKV Chairman Ayhan Zeytinoğlu, Prof. Bahri Yılmaz from Sabancı University and Head of FNF Istanbul Office Dr. Ronald Meinardus were followed by four sessions which are China in the Global Economy and Politics, Relations of China with the European Union, Relations between China and the US and Relations of Turkey with China.

The panellists of the first session, which was moderated by Head of FNF Istanbul Office Dr. Ronald Meinardus, were Karim Dahou, Senior Counsellor and Head of the China Unit in the OECD Global Relations Secretariat, Dr. Erika Gudrun Wacker, Senior Fellow at Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP) and Mehmet Öğütçü, Founder and CEO of Global Resources Partnership. Mr. Dahou touched upon the astonishing growth that occurred in Chinese economy throughout the years. After that, Dr. Gudrun Wacker shared information regarding the perceptions of the EU and the US about China and China’s rising importance in global arena which has brought the country significant memberships to a number of international organizations such as the UN and WTO. The last speaker of the first session, Mehmet Öğütçü, asserted that the Chinese economic growth was not unprecedented. Therefore, he indicated that other countries should find the ways to benefit from the rise of China and create a win-win situation. Lastly, Mr. Öğütçü highlighted the importance of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and suggested that although the world should follow its developments.

The second session entitled “Relations of China with the European Union” was moderated by Prof. Bahri Yılmaz and the panellists were Head of Research Division at SWP, Dr. Hanns Günther Hilpert, Strategic Adviser to the Managing Director of European External Action Service Asia & Pacific Department George Cunningham and Managing Director and Coordinator of Asia-Pacific Committee of German Business and Director of the Department for Asia, Africa and Foreign Trade Promotion at the Federation of German Industries, Friedolin Strack. Dr. Hilpert underlined the significance of China for the global trade and shared some statistics on it. After having touched upon the BRI, Dr. Hilpert mentioned that the project is quite essential especially for hard infrastructure. Then, George Cunningham extensively explained the group of 17+1 to close the trade and investment gap between Central and Esatern European coutries and. He concluded his presentation by putting forward that within the EU, the public opinion is really bad as there are many unfavourable opinions against China. After Mr. Cunningham, Friedolin Strack suggested that to be able to compete with China, the EU should keep its companies competitive and innovative. He mentioned the reports of the European Commission and publications of other important European institutions should be closely followed and examined. His final point was State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) which compose of a great portion of Chinese economy and he underlined an agreement among the countries including Japan, the EU and Canada to create a fairer competition environment in global arena is on the table.

The third session entitled “Relations between China and the US” was moderated by Fatih Oktay, Lecturer at Koç University, the panellists were Selim Kuneralp, Former Turkish Ambassador of Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Turkey, Assoc. Prof. Sait Akman, Director of G20 Studies Centre at Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey (TEPAV) and Vesile Kulaçoğlu, Former Director of Trade and Environment Division at WTO. Selim Kuneralp talked about the history of US-China relationship in detail and reminded the most important turning points such as the Korean War, Vietnam War and Nixon’s trip to Beijing. Next, Assoc. Prof. Akman made a presentation about what has happened during the last years and trade wars between the US and China. He explained that as China is growing very fast and approaching to the US, the trade deficit has become a very focal point for the Washington administration and President Trump but there has been no attempt to overcome the trade deficit. Mr. Akman concluded by saying that there are three future scenarios. The first is cooperation which means living together interdependently and not decoupling China from globalization. The second is the bad one causing a war and the third is the new normal case of today’s ambivalent relationship. The last speaker of the session, Vesile Kulaçoğlu, began by saying that the truce between the US and China is not very optimistic as there have been rollbacks on tariffs. She touched also upon China’s WTO membership. Her last points were that negotiations at the WTO should be multilateral and the tension between the US and China is destroying the supply chains because of the uncertainties it creates.

The fourth session entitled “Relations of Turkey with China” was moderated by IKV Secretary General Çiğdem Nas and the panellists were Dr. Altay Atlı, Lecturer at the Department of International Relations at Koç University; Korhan Kurdoğlu, Vice Chairman and CEO of TFI TAB Food Investments and President of TÜSİAD China Network and Mehmet Özgün Arman, Head of Department, Deputy Directorate General for East Asia at Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkey. Dr. Atlı argued that Turkish policies towards China can be analysed under four categories: systematic changes, economic expectations, Uighur issue and public opinion. He said the world system is no longer bipolar and Turkey should be able to work with the EU and China at the same time to diversify its partners. Dr. Atlı underlined the huge trade deficit of Turkey against China and clarified that Turkey cooperates with China in four different areas: development, energy self-sufficiency, infrastructure and finance. In terms of Uighur issue, he told that it undermines the confidence between Turkey and China. And lastly, he concluded by saying that the public opinion about China is not actually favourable.

Afterwards, Korhan Kurdoğlu continued the details about his company’s ongoing businesses in China. According to Mr. Kurdoğlu, China witnessed immense changes and dynamic economic activities. He highlighted the importance of digitalization in China which created significant improvements for partnerships between Turkish and Chinese businesses. Last speaker of the session, Mehmet Özgün Arman, made the point that in recent years, relations between Turkey and China gained momentum which has created win-win situation for both countries. He said that Turkey provided important opportunities for China in terms of both investment and tourism. He concluded by asserting that political will to improve multilateralism should be sustained by both countries. After the Q&A session, the round table meeting came to an end with the distribution of IKV’s Turkish and English publications to the audience.