Chinese people in Turkey

There is a small community of Chinese people in Turkey, mostly temporary expatriates. A few hundred Chinese students are enrolled in various Turkish universities. Turkey has a sizeable number of Muslim Uyghur people who hail from the Xinjiang region of China. They have come in large numbers since the early 1950s from the northwestern provinces of China and as part of their migration to the Middle East, many chose to settle down in urban centres of Turkey. Today, they have effectively associated themselves with the local economy and can be seen practicing in various forms of trade.
In the past, the living conditions of the Turkic Uyghurs in China has often been a source of contention between the two countries, with Turkey protesting the treatment of Uyghurs in China. Many Uyghur activists in Turkey are members of secessionist groups such as "Home of the Youth", which advocate the independence of a Turkestan republic carved from the current Uyghur homeland of Xinjiang, PRC. These groups have reportedly engaged in various attacks against Chinese nationals and interests based in Turkey.
In 2005, China voiced concerns over such organisations, stating explicitly that Turkey should contain any separatist activities which posed a threat to China and that Turkish security agencies had to better protect the life and property of Chinese citizens in Turkey. In 2009, the Chinese Foreign Ministry warned its citizens in Turkey "to remain vigilant and ... avoid crowded or sensitive places" after a series of threats were made on Chinese people and facilities.
Several people of Chinese origin have moved to Turkey in order to further their table tennis careers and compete internationally for Turkey, including Melek Hu, Cem Zeng and Bora Vang.
Chinese people in Turkey are one the  ethnic groups  of overseas Chinese living in Central Asia, they consist mainly of Chinese-born expatriates living in Turkey and descendants of Chinese migrants. In 2020, there were 18740 documented Chinese people living in Turkey (TurkStat 2019). Turkey also hosts approximately 50, 000 Uyghur refugees which hail from the Xinjiang Region of North-West China (Davidson 2020).
With flowing tourism and investment, Chinese interest in cities such as Istanbul has grown (Yilmaz & Cooke, 2008). Dolpadere, a neighborhood in Istanbul, is now undergoing transformation to become the new Chinatown in the city
History.
After many centuries of migration from the Chinese state, there has been an emergence of distinct Chinese ethnic diasporas in the Turkish State (Faroqhi & Berktay 2016). Chinese Empires went through phases of trying to synthesise cultures with steppe ethnicities, including Turkic peoples, as they conquered them.  This is referred to as the Eurasian Hybrid model  (Whittow 2018). During the Tang Dynasty, the Northern China-Inner Asia borderlands were often contested, with ethnically distinct and autonomous regions (Di Cosmo & Mass 2018, 356). An Lushan, a former provincial governor and half Turkic military commander for the Tangs revolted, causing the Tang Dynasty to rely on Uyghur Empire military reinforcements, another Turkic group (Di Cosmo & Mass 2018). The Silk Road was a ancient, international trade route which connected the Ottoman and the Chinese empires for 2000 years. The road spanned from the ancient Chinese capital of Chnagan ], through Inner Asia to the modern day Turkey. Today, the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Republic of Turkey stand on the Eastern and Western ends of Eurasia and the Silk Road. 
Sino-Turkic economic policies were strengthened in the 20th century (Eliküçük Yıldırım 2021). The 1970s saw developments in Turkish foreign policy and Turkey’s relationship with China. The international Cold War trade divisions of the Eastern and Western Blocs were loosening as the Sino- American relationship was strengthening (Çolakoğlu 2021).  The US Congress put an embargo on trade with Turkey in 1975 in response to the Cyprus Dispute, because of their opposition to the Turkish operation of sending troops to Cyprus on July 20, 1974 (Güney 2004).  Ankara now needed to seek relations with socialist nations that were not found in the Arab World, so began to prioritise developing the policy with Asia for their own national interest.  Turkey then turned to the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) for support (Çolakoğlu 2021), since it was a member of the UN Security Council, which gave it increasing leverage in world politics. From the 1970s, Ankara began to standardise the development of Asian Foreign Policy (Eliküçük Yıldırım 2021).  
Migration patterns.
The Turkish census (TurkStat) shows the number of immigrants and emigrants by country of citizenship.  In  2019, there were 7328 Chinese immigrants and 3252 Chinese emigrants (Turkstat 2019). The immigrant population comprised 4169 males and 3159 females (Turkstat 2019), while in the emigrant population, 2501 were male and 751 were female. There was an overall net migration of 4076 people. These figures have decreased since 2016, where there were  8281 Chinese immigrants living in Turkey and 3057 Chinese emigrants. Chinese people make up the 19th largest foreign national migration group in Turkey (Turkstat 2019).
Demographics.
Turkstat reports that in 2019, the overall population of Chinese people living in Turkey was 18505 people. 10085 of this population were male and 8420 were female. In 2020, this population increased by 235 people, bringing the new overall total to 18740. The male population increased by 335 people, while the female population decreased by 103 people. Chinese people also make up a considerable portion of naturalised ethnic groups, being the 12th largest group of citizens in the country.
Ethnic Minorities.
Uyghurs.
Since the 1950s, there has been a growing diaspora community of ethnic Uyghurs in Turkey. Some founding members of this community, Mehmet Emin Buğra and İsa Yusuf Alptekin,  provided  social cohesion to unify disparate individuals which have fled their homeland in Communist China (Uşçu 2013, 74). The earliest migration waves of the Uyghurs to Turkey are traced back to 1952, when the Chinese Communist Party seized control of the Xinjiang region in northwest China in 1949 (Abdulbakieva 2020).  These first migration waves were also led by  Buğra and Alptekin, and these prominent members continued the legacy of Uyghur migration well after new waves had arrived in Turkey. Turkey hosts approximately 50, 000 Uyghurs (Davidson 2020). The majority of this population is dispersed in Istanbul’s Sefakoy and Zeytinburnu districts, located in the southeast of the city (Muller 2021).
The community has been supported by Uyghur political and cultural organisations that have been mobilized by first-generation Uyghur of the initial waves of emigrants. The Eastern Turkistan Foundation (Dogu Turkistan Vakfi), founded by Mehmet Riza Bekin in 1978,  and East Turkistan Human Rights Watch Association, are both non-profit organisations located in Istanbul (Uşçu 2013). Largely, the organisations campaign and raise awareness, criticising alleged human rights abuses by the Chinese Government directed at the Uyghurs, who are extradited from Turkey (Rodríguez-Merino 2019).  The Uyghur community do not feel pressured to assimilate into a Turkish identity, distinguishing themselves in their distinct diaspora (Abdulbakieva 2020, 15). They instead have a strong affiliation with Uyghurness, central to this is their embrace of Islam (Abdulbakieva 2020).      
Inter-Ethnic relations.
The Silk Belt and Road initiative has been put forward to involve Central Asia in the Global Sphere, after the collapse of the Soviet Union (Wang 2016). It has also been an opportunity to improve cultural ties in the Sino-Turkish relationship. The Belt Road provides transportation links for railways and roads in landlocked Asia. Sino-Turkish strategic cooperation is essential due to their positioning at either end of the Silk Road (MA 2014).  Chinese President Xi Xinping attended the 2015 G20 summit held in Antalya, Turkey, and had sights on building a community of common interests with Turkey. China and Turkey  declared they were going to increase their trade volumes to 50 billion in 2015 and increase further to 100 billion in 2020 (Ekrem 2018).
The Chinese Belt Road (BRI) has renewed Chinese investors’ interest in buying real estate in Turkey. 415 units were purchased by Chinese Nationals from January to July 2020 (Turkstat 2020). The Chinese are now the 8th largest foreign property buyer in Turkey (TurkStat 2020). Foreign investments have increased alongside the Turkish Citizenship by Investment Program (Yilmaz & Cooke, 2008). This program allows foreign nationals to invest in different country sectors in order to obtain the rights of Turkish Citizenship, it was introduced on 12th January 2017 (Mondaq Business Briefing 2017). Foreigners can buy property valued at 1 million dollars USD or more and then are entitled to Turkish Citizenship themselves and their family. 
Chinese investment has been focused on the Istanbul quarter of Dolapdere, located in the Beyoğlu district of the central city.  The head of the Turkey-China Business Council for the Foreign Economic Relations Board (DEİK) , Murat Kolbaşı, has said,  “There are ‘Chinatowns,’ where people of Chinese origin live, in a number of cities across the world. As Chinese interest in Istanbul grows stronger, we may see something similar emerging here.” Chinese tourists in Istanbul numbered 500, 000 in 2018 which was an increase of 100% from the previous year.  Dolpadere, a historically been a poor neighbourhood, has undergone gentrification to become Istanbul’s Chinatown,  seeking interest by Chinese foreign investors.  Chinese investors have launched The Regard and the Beijing hotels located in Dolpadere.  Chinese companies are undertaking these investments to support to large numbers of Chinese tourists who visit Istanbul annually. Other Chinese-lead venture are under development, including real estate programs. 
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