removals of Arabic signage followed province-by-province implementation and were unevenly enforced.
4.2 Arabic Script
Bans on the use of Arabic script in public places reflect the principles contained in Document 10 that Arabic should not be considered an ethnic minority language, and that the use of Arabic is itself a sign of the recent ‘Saudization’ and ‘Arabization’. By extension, the party-state offers no formal legal protection for Arabic language education for Muslim minorities (see 5.3 Removal of Arabic Provision and 5.4 Control of Publishing), nor for the usage of Arabic calligraphic inscriptions as a distinctive marker of Hui culture.
As with other measures, removals of Arabic signage followed province-by-province implementation and were unevenly enforced. ‘Halal’ signs in Arabic were removed from shops and restaurants in Ningxia beginning in March 2018, in the wake of similar measures applied to businesses in Xinjiang. Such removals often took place overnight, with previous decor clumsily painted over. Arabic halal signs were replaced with a simple government-issued logo (see 4.3 Pan-Halalification). Following this initial implementation in Ningxia, mandates to remove Arabic signage were slowly enacted across the rest of China, with the majority coming into effect across 2019-2020.
The severity of the bans on Arabic language has varied. In some places, removals have extended to blacking out Arabic script on vases inside mosques. Elsewhere, Arabic calligraphy displayed in the interior of mosques in other locations has remained untouched. In some regions, the directives against halal signage and Arabic script have broadened to encompass businesses with Islamic-sounding Chinese names, forcing them to rebrand.
Almost 1000 signs in Linxia, Gansu, were replaced in 2018, in addition to further bans on halal labeling. In 2020, residents in Hebei and Shandong were required to cover the du’a plaques that decorate gateways to private homes. In 2018 in Pingliang, Gansu, famous for its Muslim-Chinese calligraphers and where hanging du’a is a prized local tradition, party-state officials reportedly threatened locals, stating that their doors and gates would be “broken” if they did not cover them.
Such variation in the standards for when Arabic script should be considered acceptable is further complicated by pressure from Islamophobic activists who circulate guides online detailing how to employ government tiplines to spur further crackdowns from local government. One such guide published on the question-and-answer website Zhuanlan Zhihu (roughly similar to Quora), details how in 2018, an activist used a hotline to the mayor of Ordos, Inner Mongolia, to report a signboard outside the Dongsheng Mosque in that city for containing content that “greatly overstepped the confines of religious activities” (for further details of this case, see 6.0 Surveillance and Monitoring). The signboard outside the mosque was removed as a result, and the activist’s report led to a further investigation that forced the removal of Arabic calligraphic decorations and Islamic symbols inside the mosque premises. Intervention by activists effectively ensured the local authorities had to take action that exceeded the original targets of the Sinicization campaign. Similarly, in May 2023, Islamophobic netizens reported a restaurant in Beijing for hanging a Chinese-language plaque reading “the Lord grant peace” (主赐平安). Although the sign was in Chinese, the ensuing investigation nevertheless ordered the restaurant to take their plaque down.
4.3 Pan-Halalification
Official discourse from the party-state has decried the use of halal labeling as a brand, arguing that the designation of a diverse range of products as halal in search of profit carries negative consequences for China’s economy as well as its national security. In 2016, the Party Secretary of Ningxia, Li Jianhua, denounced the overuse of halal labeling as a distortion of the market and as a danger to national security: “As expanded use of halal labeling, with products such as halal water, halal paper, halal toothpaste, and halal makeup, from the perspective of national security, we must increase our vigilance. We must recognize the slightest signs, prevent the smallest mistakes, and establish dialectical thinking, whilst also fully respecting ethnic minority customs and habits. We must work to prevent the generalization of halal labeling, seek advantage and evade harm, and provide scientific leadership.” Halal labeling has been a particular lightning rod for online Islamophobic activists, who view any use of halal labeling as a sign of spreading Islamism and de-Sinicization.
Restrictions on halal labeling began to be enforced from mid-2016, with systematic bans and regulation in place from 2018 onwards. Store owners stocking items labeled as halal outside the party-state’s narrow definition of the term have been forced to return stock to sellers or had their items confiscated and, in some instances, destroyed. In March 2017, Ningxia announced steps to remove ‘wrongly labeled’ halal products (i.e., goods labeled ‘halal’ that did not contain meat products) from markets. In early 2018, Ningxia issued new regulations on halal signage, including a standardized halal sign for businesses to display. In addition to banning the usage of any halal signage beyond the official approved provincial design, the regulations also stipulated that names, signs, and trademarks for businesses could not contain the term ‘qingzhen’ (halal) or any other words with Islamic connotations. According to the regulations, violators of halal labeling rules will receive a warning first, and will then be fined if they do not change their labels. Businesses have been threatened with removal of their business licenses or closure orders for non-compliance.
State agencies (i.e., the Food and Drug Administration, often in cooperation with local security forces or Religious and Ethnic Affairs), police businesses through frequent and far-ranging inspections to identify signs with unauthorized halal branding and stocks of products with inappropriate halal labeling. Companies found to violate these restrictions have been forced to remove halal labeling from their packaging. Indicative of the scale of such oversight, Huiji district in Zhengzhou, Henan, reported that they had conducted 25 inspections of halal produce and shopkeepers within a six-month period, and distributed over 3000 pamphlets and awareness-raising items to grassroots-level cadres and large merchants.
Inspections are sweeping in scope and can intrude significantly into business operations and space. For instance, in a neighborhood inspection conducted in 2021 in Lanzhou by the Gaolan Street Office, local businesses were reminded that halal signage must be used only on products “within the scope of halal food,” and signage at the entrances to halal restaurants must be restricted to the Chinese characters ‘qingzhen’ (清真). Display of halal signage in pinyin, English, Arabic, or Uyghur is forbidden, as is the use of Islamic symbols such as the crescent moon or a dome. Businesses were further instructed to close any prayer spaces for employees. Such measures produce substantial consequences for Muslim consumers. A lack of proper signage and branding further complicates the practice of procuring halal meat — a process already riven with ambiguities due to the lack of a nationwide standard process of certification and the proliferation of impostor halal vendors.
