China reportedly bans Arabic labels on halal food

Northwest China’s Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region has recently been involved in the controversy around “Arabization”, with some measures against pan-Islamic tendencies already having been taken.

Northwest China’s Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region has recently been involved in the controversy around “Arabization”, with some measures against pan-Islamic tendencies already having been taken.

The Ningxia region has prohibited labels in the Arabic language on halal products, according to the Global Times.

Residents from Wuzhong and Yinchuan confirmed to the newspaper that restaurants and food stores were required to replace the halal food labels that had Arabic inscriptions on them with new ones written in both Chinese and its official Romanization system — pinyin.

Some supermarkets even had to remove the goods from the shelves until the label was replaced.

Changing labels on halal food is not the only measure Ningxia has been taking in order to “safeguard social stability and ethnic unity in the region”.

In March, plans to reconstruct the Sino-Arab Axis in Yinchuan, the spot built in 2016 to demonstrate good relations between the Arab world and China were revealed.

Authorities intend to change the previous Arabic-style buildings into a traditional Chinese style so as to “create a happy, harmonious and unified atmosphere.”