Diplomatic relations between Turkey and People’s Republic of China (PRC) were established in 1971. Turkey-PRC relations have been progressing steadily since 1980s with the opening-up of both countries.
Bilateral relations, which were elevated to the level of “strategic cooperation” in 2010, have been rapidly improving in recent years thanks to reciprocal high-level visits. The visit of former President Abdullah Gül to China on 24-29 June 2009 constituted the first visit at the presidential level after a period of 14 years. On 7-9 October 2010, former Prime Minister of China Wen Jiabao, paid a visit to Turkey. Then Vice-President Xi Jinping visited Turkey on 20-22 February 2012. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, in his capacity as Prime Minister, visited China on 8-11 April 2012, which constituted the first visit at the prime ministerial level after a period of 27 years.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, following his visit to China on 29-30 July 2015, met with President Xi Jinping on the margins of the G20 Summits in Antalya (14-16 November 2015), Hangzhou (4-5 September 2016), Buenos Aires (30 November 2018), and Osaka (28-29 June 2019) summits as well as the Belt and Road Summit (14-15 May 2017) and BRICS Summit (Pretoria, 23-28 July 2018).
In 2019, H.E. President Erdoğan met President Xi on the sidelines of CICA Summit in Dushanbe and the G20 Summit in Osaka. Following the G20 Summit, President Erdoğan paid an official visit to China on July 2, 2019. Two leaders also held telephone conversations in order to discuss both bilateral and global issues in April 2018 and April 2020.
Foreign Minister Çavuşoğlu paid a working visit to China on 15 June 2018.
Over the years, many consultation mechanisms have been established at different levels with China to discuss bilateral as well as regional and global issues.