Chinese Regime Forces Muslim Uyghur Shopkeepers to Stock Cigarettes and Alcohol

To “weaken” religion in Xinjiang, the Chinese regime orders Muslim Uyghur shopkeepers to sell taboo items or face business closure.
Chinese Regime Forces Muslim Uyghur Shopkeepers to Stock Cigarettes and Alcohol
Two Uyghur men stand in a restaurant in Hotan, in China's western Xinjiang region, April 15, 2015. Greg Baker/AFP/Getty Images
Larry Ong
Journalist
|Updated:

In recognition of their abusive and harmful potential, governments worldwide usually restrict the sale of alcohol and cigarettes. But the Chinese Communist Party wants shop owners in Xinjiang Province, westmost China, to carry these items explicitly to undermine the faith of the Uyghur people, a Turkic-speaking population who practice Islam.

Village level Party authorities in Laskuy, a township in Hotan City, announced on April 29 that all restaurants and supermarkets should carry “five different brands of alcohol and cigarettes” and place them in “eye-catching displays” before May 1, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reports. Vendors who failure to comply will have their shops shuttered and face legal action.

Xinjiang authorities think Muslim Uyghurs who don’t smoke are practicing “a form of religious extremism,” Aktash village Party committee secretary Adil Sulayman (incidentally, a Uyghur name) to RFA.

"How can the authorities force the people to sell what they won't?"
— Ilshat Hassan, Uyghur American Association Vice President
Larry Ong
Larry Ong
Journalist
Larry Ong is a New York-based journalist with Epoch Times. He writes about China and Hong Kong. He is also a graduate of the National University of Singapore, where he read history.
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