Chinese Muslims develop halal industry

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Tue, 11/08/2011 12:42 PM

Chinese Muslims have announced plans to develop halal industries to accommodate not just the needs of fellow Chinese Muslims in China but also Muslims in other countries.

“We have more than 10,000 factories, restaurants with halal-certified foods and beverages,” said Wang Shengjun, the Halal Food Commission chief of the Ningxia province, as quoted by antara.com.

Ningxia, a province that has gained autonomy since 1958, is well known for its Muslim Hui ethnicity, which is the dominant ethnicity among the 35 Chinese ethnic groups found in the province.

Wang said the province’s halal industry had a laboratory that used some of the most advanced technology in China, with 15 experts and 300 staffers. The halal product industry in Ningxia is currently worth up to 50 million RMB (Rp 70 billion).

Wang also said the local halal industry was working with other halal industries abroad.

“We have cooperated with halal industries in Saudi Arabia, Qatar,Egypt and Malaysia on a reciprocal basis,” he said.

He added that that the Chinese halal industry planned to cooperate with its Indonesian counterparts soon.

Serang villagers protest against Chinese cemetery plan

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Thu, 01/27/2011 11:32 AM | Archipelago

Hundreds of residents of Balekambang village, Banten, have staged a demonstration to protest against a plan to build a Chinese cemetery in the area.  

The coordinator of the demonstration, Sulton Aziz from the Residents’ Anti-Chinese Cemetery Solidarity Group, said the plan had gone against existing procedures and regulations, Antara reported Thursday.

The developer had not secured any building permit or a permit from local residents to build the cemetery, he added.

During the protest, which lasted two hours on Wednesday, residents carried banners calling for all residents the arear to oppose the plan.

A Buddhist foundation, Yayasan Timur Raya, plans to build the cemetery on a 500 hectare plot of land near the village. So far it has acquired only 20 hectares for the cemetery.  

Aziz said some villagers had agreed to sell their land because they were told it would be used for a cattle farm.