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Legislature urged for halal food regulations
2025-05-15
BEIJING – The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislative body, will urge the State Council to formulate halal food regulations in a timely manner, according to a report passed last Friday.
According to the results of the report, the National People's Congress Ethnic Affairs Committee proposed the "Bill for the Development of the Halal Food Management Law" at the end of the bimonthly meeting of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress.
The bill was submitted at the fifth session of the 11th National People's Congress on March 31.
It said there were time conflicts involving violations of halal food and that a lack of legislation was hampering the department's enforcement efforts, recommending that relevant legislation be expedited.
The Ethnic Affairs Commission supported the relevance of the bill, saying China has ten ethnic minorities that consume halal food, totaling more than 20 million people.
It is crucial to regulate halal food businesses and earnestly respect the dietary habits of these ethnic groups in order to safeguard their legitimate rights and interests and strengthen national unity and social stability, according to the committee.
Therefore, it is recommended that the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress urge the State Council or the Cabinet to formulate Halal food regulations, and legislators should consider learning from experience and then implement the State Council’s regulations.
The report also indicated that the central government has invested a lot of effort in drafting the halal food regulations, which people in the nation said had high expectations for.
"Halal" refers to food that is permitted for consumption under Islamic law.