As the Turkish language versions of Xinhua News Agency and China Radio International (CRI) reached only a tiny local audience, the public debate surrounding the “Chinese vaccine” was largely driven by the domestic media. But more importantly, Turkey’s highly polarized ideological environment turned the COVID pandemic and the vaccine debate into a battle of wills between the Turkish government and the country’s opposition circles. This skepticism was also related to the Turkish public’s unfavorable views of China at large. Although Turkish consumers had grown accustomed to Chinese products during the past two decades alongside the exponential growth in Sino-Turkish trade, many were skeptical of the unfamiliar Chinese vaccine brand. Most of Turkey’s neighbors, after all, had opted for Euro-American brands such as Pfizer-BioNTech or Oxford-AstraZeneca. This was a surprising choice for many and a big “why” lingered in the Turkish media. Since Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca announced the official decision to purchase CoronaVac in October 2020, propagating the “Chinese vaccine” in Turkey has been an uphill battle. This piece focuses on the Turkish public debate on Sinovac during the winter of 2020-21, with the aim of shedding light on the local reception of China’s global health diplomacy in the post-COVID era.Ī close look at the Turkish case demonstrates the complexities presented by the local context, which is of utmost importance in any discussion of soft power. Although this gave Turkey an important place in China’s health diplomacy and gained a great deal of notoriety, the local ramifications of the “Chinese vaccine” in Turkey did not receive much scholarly attention. Turkey was among the first countries to purchase CoronaVac ─ an inactivated coronavirus vaccine produced by China’s Sinovac Biotech pharmaceutical company. To launch China’s health diplomacy in full gear, however, one needed the coronavirus vaccine, which Beijing was able to deliver towards the first anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic. But a few months after this little-known virus had put entire Chinese cities in quarantine, Beijing was already trying to repair the country’s reputation by sending medical teams, test kits and booklets to countries in need. The coronavirus pandemic was as much a big soft power nightmare as it was a health crisis for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) during the winter of 2019-2020. This article is part of the series on “COVID-19 in the Middle East and Asia: Impacts and Responses”.
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