EXPLAINING TURKISH PEOPLE’S NEGATIVE REACTION TO THE CHINESE COVID-19 VACCINE: THE ROLE OF TURKEY-CHINA RELATIONS

Abstract

COVID-19 which basically threatened human health, has also damaged social, economic and political order in both global and national levels. When it was officially declared that Turkey buys a COVID-19 vaccine from a Chinese firm, Turkish people's reaction was negative which was indicated in social media, street interviews, and surveys conducted by research companies. With the purpose of understanding this negative reaction, Turkey-China relations are overviewed by focusing on some of the prominent problems between the two countries. It is questioned whether these problems had an impact on the negative reaction of Turkish people to the Chinese vaccine. The Xinjiang issue has been one of the important problems increasing the tension between Turkey and China. Recently, the cancellation of some important projects and some conflicting regional policies, have not hindered the increasing tendency to improve military cooperation and economic relations between the two countries. In addition to these issues, this paper mainly focuses on Turkey’s high trade deficit against China since the mid-1990s and the invasion of Chinese cheap and unqualified goods of Turkish markets in the 2000s as the cause of the negative reaction of the Turkish people to the Sinovac vaccine. In this period, it is seen that Turkish consumer demand on cheap Chinese goods increased first and decreased in time because they are unqualified and harmful to heath. In conclusion, it is discussed that this experience of Turkish people regarding Chinese goods has been the most significant cause of the negative reaction to the Chinese COVID-19 vaccine.