Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is set to visit China on Wednesday, a move that aims to strengthen Sino-Turkish ties after Turkey stepped up its criticism of China's domestic ethnic affairs.
Foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang announced Monday in Beijing that Erdogan will pay a state visit to China on Wednesday and Thursday at the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Erdogan will bring with him a delegation of around 100 businesspeople and is expected to discuss trade and security issues, Bloomberg reported.
He is also expected to prepare during the trip for November's G20 summit in the southern Turkish resort of Antalya in November.
Analysts said Erdogan's visit will likely strengthen bilateral communication on political issues, which Beijing sees as "fundamental" to economic and other cooperation.
"The topic of Xinjiang will be unavoidable during the bilateral talks, since Turkey's comments on the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region have become a constraining factor in the development of bilateral ties," Zhu Weilie, director at the Institute of Middle East Studies at Shanghai International Studies University, told the Global Times.
Violent protests broke out in Istanbul this month, with mobs targeting the Chinese consulate, a Chinese restaurant and a group of Korean tourists who were mistaken for Chinese people, after media reports alleged that China had banned Uyghur Muslims, a Turkic-language ethnic group, from participating in Ramadan.
The Turkish foreign ministry issued a statement saying it was "deeply concerned" over such reports.
China has repeatedly denied these allegations, stating that all ethnic groups are entitled to freedom of religious belief.
"China sees the potential of developing ties with Turkey, in trade and in security, and believes cooperation needs to be built on deepened political trust," Zhu said. "Turkey is also aware that China's influence in the Middle East has been on the rise."
China is Turkey's third largest trading partner, after Germany and Russia, with $28.6 billion trade volume last year.
