Abstract
Using a feminist perspective, this chapter focuses on two factors that bring China and Turkey together: the transnationalization of domestic repression and patriarchal authoritarian policies and offers a multi-perspective analysis, which looks at the state of the strategic partnership between two countries not only in terms of economic and security relations but also its effects on different groups marginalized by these two regimes. By applying the insights from a theoretical perspective that questions the masculine constructions of power, the chapter argues that the strengthening connections between China and Turkey under presidents Xi and Erdoğan increase the capacity of both authoritarian regimes to constrain and marginalize its dissident and vulnerable groups as well as women. The chapter concludes that while the partnership between China and Turkey promotes state elites’ interests, it also facilitates human rights violations and anti-democratic practices.
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Notes
- 1.
TUIK Data accessible at https://data.tuik.gov.tr/Bulten/Index?p=Foreign-Trade-Statistics-September-2022-45544 (last accessed on December 5, 2022).
- 2.
For a timeline of Turkey-China relations, see: http://www.tuciad.org.tr/turk-cin-siyasi-iliskileri/#.
- 3.
http://eminonen.com/TC_Pekin_Buyukelciligi_2019_Faaliyet_Raporu.pdf. This report has been taken down since our last access on September 10, 2020.
- 4.
Today, abortion remains legal up to the 10th week of pregnancy and up to the 20th week; for medical reasons, it is largely inaccessible. According to a 2017 survey of 58 public hospitals, most state hospitals (78%) only provide abortions in cases of medical necessity, and 11.4% refuse to provide abortion services under any circumstances, defying the law. See O’Neil (<CitationRef CitationID="CR54" >2017</Citation Ref>).
- 5.
In 2018, only 17.4% of Turkey’s parliament was women, against 24.9% of women in China’s National People’s Congress. Source: http://archive.ipu.org/wmn-e/classif.htm. In 2023 elections, the percentage of women parliament members in Turkey rose to 20%.
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This chapter is based on and considerably extends Alemdaroğlu and Tepe (2020). We thank the editors for their feedback on our earlier draft.
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Alemdaroğlu, A., Tepe, S. (2023). Turkey’s Strategic Partnership with China: A Feminist Recount. In: Özkeçeci-Taner, B., Akgül Açıkmeşe, S. (eds) One Hundred Years of Turkish Foreign Policy (1923-2023). Global Foreign Policy Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35859-3_9
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