Mobilizing the Muslim Minority for China's Development: Hui Muslims, Ethnic Relations and Sino-Arab Connections

Abstract

In forging the growing trade ties between the Arab world and China, this paper observes that the Hui Muslim minority underwent an ethnic turn in the revival of the Silk Road connections, which shifted from being the Han man's burden to a potential asset of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Firstly, this paper introduces how cultural perceptions shape the treatment of ethnic minorities in China by reviewing the historical background of the national policy on ethnic minorities. Secondly, it discusses why the Hui Muslims in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, the largest Hui Muslim settled area, were mobilized to foster Sino-Arab trade rather than the Uyghurs in Xinjiang. An example is the transformation of the Qingzhen food industry of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region into a hub of China's Islamic food (Halal) production. This paper argues that the management of food safety among Muslim minorities is not only significant to the local public health and inter-ethnic harmony, but also a key foreign strategy in improving China's global image, especially in building strategic foreign relations with the Muslim world. Given the ethnic unrest in domestic politics and the trend of the state's initiative in strengthening foreign relations with the Arab world, this paper concludes that Hui Muslims today have been, on one hand, demonstrating the model of a “good citizen” and, on the other, playing a “cultural ambassador”, mediating between the post-socialist China and the Muslim world along the new Silk Road.

Keywords:

• China
• Hui Muslims
• Ningxia
• Qingzhen
• Halal food
• Sino-Arab relations

Acknowledgements

An earlier draft of this paper was presented at the “Symposium of Qingzhen Cuisine Cultural Forum” organized by the Ningxia Academy of Social Sciences, China on 26 September 2010 and the “International Conference on Citizenship and Civil Society: Cosmopolitan Challenges” co-organized by Sheffield University and Sun Yat-Sen University, China on 10 December 2010. I am grateful to Ding Kejia and Guo Zhonghua for their invitation to participate in the conferences, so that I had opportunity to present my early ideas and receive comments on my work from the Muslim intellectuals and other academics at the conference. The content of this paper has been revised for publication in the Journal of Comparative Asian Development and I am grateful to the guest editors, Ho Wing Chung and Chris Chan, for their kind invitation and inclusion of my work in this special issue. I am indebted to Greg B. Felker, John Keane, James Piscatori, Gideon W. Y. Yung's family, Rev. C. T. Wong's family, Anita K. W. Chan, Carl Lau, Sonny S. H. Lo, Joe T. Y. Lo, Raymond K. H. Chan, Alex Y. H. Kwan, Alex Chan, Chi-Wai Lui, my wife Ivy Pang Ping Yuen and my daughter Noel Ho King Min for their invaluable advice, generous encouragement and kind patience. I am also grateful to M. G. Quirante and Yat-Kong Fung for their assistance editing the paper. Of course, the responsibility for the arguments and any deficiencies in this paper remains entirely mine.