Chinese Soft Power and Health Diplomacy: The Case of the Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract

With the 21st century, the Chinese state has reached the level of a country that develops global investment projects in the world. In order for global projects to be successful, it is very important that the project stakeholders are convinced of the project. In international relations, the attraction to the main actor of the project is explained by the concept of soft power. In this context, China's soft power is one of the issues emphasized in the literature. The tools of soft power are quite diverse. Health diplomacy is just one of them. In the study, China's contributions to its own soft power by using health diplomacy were examined. The Covid-19 pandemic has provided opportunities for the Chinese state to demonstrate its health diplomacy, show its responsibility towards other states, and increase its soft power. For this reason, the activities of China, especially during the global epidemic, were examined in this study. As a result of the examination, it was determined that China was the country that helped other states the most during the pandemic period. The contribution of the activities to China's soft power has been tried to understand how other states perceive Chinese health diplomacy. In the study, which investigated the discourses of other countries' politicians on Chinese health diplomacy, it was concluded that Chinese soft power increased during the Covid-19 period.

Keywords

• China
• Covid19
• Health Diplomacy
• Soft Power
• Public Diplomacy

Çin Yumuşak Gücü ve Sağlık Diplomasisi: Covid19 Pandemisi Örneği

Öz

Çin devleti 21’inci yüzyıl ile birlikte dünyada küresel düzeyde yatırım projeleri üreten bir ülke seviyesine gelmiştir. Küresel projelerin başarılı olması için proje paydaşlarının projeye ve sürece ikna olması oldukça önemlidir. Uluslararası ilişkiler literatüründe projenin başat aktörüne duyulan cazibe yumuşak güç kavramıyla açıklanmaktadır. Bu bağlamda Çin’in yumuşak gücü, literatürde üzerinde durulan konulardan biridir. Yumuşak gücün araçları oldukça çeşitlidir. Sağlık diplomasisi bunlardan sadece biridir. Çalışmada Çin’in sağlık diplomasisini kullanarak kendi yumuşak gücüne yaptığı katkılar irdelenmiştir. Covid19 pandemisi Çin devletine sağlık diplomasisini sergilemek, diğer devletlere karşı sorumluluğunu göstermek ve yumuşak gücünü artırmak adına fırsatlar sunmuştur. Bu nedenle çalışmada özellikle pandemi sürecinde Çin’in faaliyetleri incelenmiştir. İnceleme sonucunda Çin’in pandemi döneminde diğer devletlere en çok yardım eden ülke olduğu tespit edilmiştir. Faaliyetlerin Çin’in yumuşak gücüne katkısı ise diğer devletlerin Çin sağlık diplomasisine bakış açısıyla anlaşılmaya çalışılmıştır. Diğer ülke siyasilerinin Çin sağlık diplomasisine dair söylemlerinin araştırıldığı çalışmada Çin yumuşak gücünün Covid19 döneminde arttığı sonucuna varılmıştır.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Çin
• Covid19
• Sağlık Diplomasisi
• Yumuşak Güç
• Kamu Diplomasisi

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