China’s 23 million Muslims, cut off from the Islamic world during the decades of Beijing’s isolationist policies, are having a difficult time being accepted by their co-religionists. This disconnect is especially tough for Chinese producers of religiously approved “halal” food who want to get into the global market of 1.6 billion Muslims. “They distrust us and doubt our piety,” halal food producer Zhang Hongyi told a Beijing newspaper recently. Zhang’s solution is to lobby for contracts with Saudi Arabia’s government to provide food for Muslim pilgrims to Mecca.
