46 Europe The EconomistFebruary 1st 2020
A
few monthsago commuters in Istan-
bul were treated to an unusual sight.
Overnight, the names of some metro and
tram stops, especially in parts of the city
popular among foreign tourists, appeared
in Chinese characters. Angry about China’s
treatment of Turkic-speaking Uighurs in
Xinjiang province, protesters ripped down
some of the signs. They covered others
with stickers reading: “Murderer China” or
“Freedom for East Turkestan” (the name for
Xinjiang preferred by Uighur separatists).
Ekrem Imamoglu, the opposition
mayor, explained that the signs had been
installed as part of an agreement between
Istanbul and China’s embassy, and that the
arrangement was temporary. The signs
vanished as fast as they had appeared.
China’s footprint in Turkey is growing.
The annual influx of Chinese tourists has
climbed from about 60,000 a decade ago to
over 400,000 last year. China has helped
build Turkey’s first stretch of high-speed
rail, Huawei is helping it build a 5gmobile
network and Chinese investors have
snapped up Turkish marble quarries to kit
out luxury flats back home. Last year Chi-
na’s central bank provided Turkey with
$1bn under a currency-swap agreement.
Rumours swirl that Chinese cash will soon
pour into the country under the Belt and
Road Initiative, a project to connect the
world to China by building roads, railways
and other infrastructure. So far, it hasn’t.
The oppression of the Uighurs seems to
be the main obstacle. Last year Turkey was
the only large Muslim country to complain
about China locking up perhaps 1m of them
for such offences as growing beards or be-
ing pious Muslims. In response, China
temporarily closed its consulate in Izmir, a
big coastal city. Turkey had crossed one of
the Chinese government’s red lines, says
Guo Changgang of the Centre for Turkish
Studies at Shanghai University. Since then
Turkey has trodden more carefully. Last
June, after opposition deputies called for
an inquiry into the repression of Uighurs,
The ruling party voted down the proposal.
During a subsequent trip to China Presi-
dent Recep Tayyip Erdogan took a softer
line on the internment camps.
China will not stay away from Turkey
for long. It is a market of 80m people and a
gateway to Europe and the Middle East.
Some day, Chinese contractors eager to join
the reconstruction of war-ravaged Syria
will also look to Turkish ports and cementproducers for help. “Turkey has the re-
sources and the suppliers,” says Altay Atli
of Koc University in Istanbul. “The Chinese
simply have to come here.”
Turkey has struggled to attract foreign
investment in the past few years, largely as
a result of tensions with America and Eu-
rope, over such things as its friendliness to
Russia, the purchase of Russian missiles
and human rights. Some in government
advocate cosying up to China as well as
Russia. But China is unlikely to bail out
Turkey’s economy. Of the total stock of for-
eign investment in Turkey between 2002
and 2018, some 75% came from Europe; the
Chinese share was around 1%.
At his newly opened Beijing Hotel, closeto Istanbul’s main entertainment and
shopping district, Jackie Cheng watches a
group of Chinese guests trickle out of the
main entrance, past a restaurant that
serves respectable Chinese fare, and into a
tour bus. Mr Cheng arrived in Turkey two
decades ago, made his fortune dealing in
textiles and souvenirs, and opened Istan-
bul’s first Chinese hotel last year. Business
has been good, he says. He plans to open
branches elsewhere in Turkey. Asked what
might help bring in more tourists and in-
vestors from the old country, he mentions
government support and simpler proce-
dures for getting a residence permit. “But
one thing that’s really needed right now”,
he says, “are more signs in Chinese.” 7ISTANBUL
A new relationship has its limitsChina and TurkeyBumps in the belt
and road
H
alf pastsevenona chillyMonday
evening is hardly clubbing prime-
time. Yet on January 27th a formidable
queue extended outside Griessmuehle, a
gritty techno spot in Berlin’s Neukölln
district, from whose walls emanated
hearty 4/4 kick drums. The party had
been going since Sunday under the ru-
bric “Is this the end?”, for on February 3rd
Griessmuehle must close; the building’s
Austrian owners wish to convert it into
offices. The Club Commission, a lobby
group, reckons 24 Berlin clubs may face
closure. Some, like KitKat, an entry-level
fetish den in Mitte, are as much part of
the city’s fabric as the Brandenburg Gate.
Hand-wringing over Clubsterben
(“dying clubs”) is nothing new in a grow-
ing city where the pressures of gentrifi-
cation have long rubbed up against the
fly-by-night world of clubbing. Yet the
threat to Griessmuehle touched a nerve,unitingraversandpoliticiansbehind a
#saveourspaces hashtag. Official support
for a €168m ($185m) industry that attracts
tourists and investment is now obliga-
tory in perennially hard-up Berlin.
Gentrification in Berlin started late
but now has a “feeling of velocity”, says
Luis-Manuel Garcia of the University of
Birmingham. The glittering array of
protections that private tenants enjoy in
Germany do not extend to businesses.
Commercial landlords may jack up rents
abruptly or keep club-owners dangling
on rolling six-month contracts. What to
do? “Frankly, we don’t have that many
tools,” accepts Georg Kössler, a Green in
Berlin’s parliament. Lutz Leichsenring of
the Club Commission says federal build-
ing law should recast clubs as “cultural
institutions”, providing them with the
same benefits as theatres and galleries.
Yet “it would be hard to claim that
clubs are genuinely threatened,” says
Will Lynch, the Berlin-based editor of
Resident Advisor, a dance-music website.
Next to the precipitous decline in cities
like London, the turnover in Berlin looks
more like churn; about 90 clubs have
closed since 2010 but 77 have opened.
Thrill-seekers are rarely left disap-
pointed by Berlin’s many nocturnal
temptations, unless they are turned away
by a grumpy bouncer. Some beloved
institutions have gone; others have now
become a bit too slick for old-timers’
tastes. But Berghain, the jewel in no-
curfew Berlin’s clubbing crown, raves on,
its future secured by ownership of the
building. Even Griessemuehle may find a
new home elsewhere. The threats are
real. But rumours of Clubsterben may
have been exaggerated.Stringsoflife
Clubbing in BerlinBERLIN
Nightlife in the world’s clubbing capital is changing, not dyingWhere next?