China courts Muslim tourists from Malaysia by attracting them with travel packages adapted to the Halals, while it tries to rekindle its tourism industry with pandemic blows while deepening links with the country of Southeast Asia of the Islamic majority.
The Malaysian interest in Chinese destinations increases thanks to enlarged halal offers and regulations on visas, according to industry analysts. There was a 15% to 20% increase in Malaysian-Muslim tourists visiting China, especially in less known regions such as Xinjiang and Ningxia, according to industry analysts.
And the Malaysia tourism industry helps Beijing to promote such plans because Kuala Lumpur seeks to attract more visitors to continental China to its side.
During a tourist fair in Kuala Lumpur last weekend, Chinese travel packages experienced high demand, with a third of the offers specifically meeting the growing Muslim population of Malaysia.
Nigel Wong, president of the Malaysia Association of Tour and Travel Agents, or Matta, which organized the fair from September 6 to 8, said that the reopening of China to foreign tourists had turned on a renewal of interests.
“The post-pandemic era and the lifting of China travel restrictions have really motivated this increase,” said Wong, affiliated with RFA, Benarnews. “With an increasing consciousness of food installations and options adapted to halal, destinations like Xinjiang, Xi’an and Ningxia become privileged locations for Muslim tourists.”
The Xinjiang has a particular attraction, despite an in progress international controversy surrounding the region. Since 2021, the American government has accused China, a rival superpowered, of carrying out a campaign of “genocide” against the Uighur Muslim minority in the West Autonomous region of Xinjiang.
The Chinese government has denied these allegations, describing them as politically motivated and motivated by foreign powers seeking to undermine the world image of Beijing.
“The ID Kah mosque of Xinjiang in Kashgar and the Historical Silk Road resonates deeply with Muslim travelers, many of which are attracted by the region for its deeply rooted Islamic history,” said Wong.
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The increase in interests coincides with improved visa agreements between China and Malaysia, which were announced during a visit to the Chinese Prime Minister Li Qiang in Kuala Lumpur in June which marked the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries.
On Sunday, the Malaysian news agency in the Bernama State reported that Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi had proposed to extend the period without visa for Malaysians from 15 to 30 days, as well as to push the expiration of the exemption until December 2026. He made the proposal during an official visit to China.
Despite these efforts by Chinese and Malaysian officials to work together to mitigate travel between nations, a senior United Nations last month amplified his investigation into the Xinjiang situation.
Radio Free Asia indicated that the head of the United Nations Volker Türk had renewed the appeal to a complete survey on documented abuses in the Xinjiang. In 2022, his office accused China of “crimes against humanity” in the region.
Meanwhile, the government of Malaysia, the second largest Muslim majority in Southeast Asia, took a prudent and little profiled position on the question of Uighur.
In 2022, Kuala Lumpur abstained from a United Nations vote to debate the Chinese treatment of Uighur Muslims, opting rather to maintain a neutral position.
Although Malaysia did not openly condemn the alleged ill -treatment of China against the Ughurs, in 2020, under the leadership of the Minister of the time, Mahathir Mohamad, the government refused to extradite members of the group in China.
The two nations do not have an extradition treaty.
The neutral position of Malaysia on the Uighur issue, however, contrasts strongly with the way in which the governments of Kuala Lumpur saw the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Anwar Ibrahim, the current Prime Minister, was particularly expressed on the world conflict scene in the Middle East.
He criticized the Jewish state for his military strikes in Gaza who made tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians who have died since the end of last year, after a surprise attack by Hamas activists killed 1,100 people in southern Israel on October 7.
The Malaysian Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to Benarnews’ requests to comment on the country’s current position concerning the Uighur Muslim issue.
For their part, Chinese travel agencies report that Malaysian travelers have shown little apprehension about the region’s visit.
“We have not received any complaints or concerns from travelers regarding the situation in the Xinjiang,” Chong Yu Ken, Vice-President of Matta in Benarnews said.
“In fact, China becomes an even more attractive option for Muslim travelers due to the tightening of the entry requirements into other Asian countries such as South Korea or expensive tickets for European countries.”
‘Soft Power’
China’s efforts to attract Muslim tourists are part of a wider strategy to invigorate its tourism sector, which has been touched by the Pandemic COVID-19, according to Sam Huang, tourism professor at Edith Cowan University.
“The Chinese government considers tourism as a tool for intelligent diplomacy and part of its soft power strategy,” he told Benarnews.
“The policies and actions of the tourism industry can serve a great strategy at the national level … China has Muslim residents in different regions and it should not be too difficult to develop more halal tourism in China.”
Chinese promotion interviewed
Meanwhile, a Swedish anthropologist and former diplomat, questioned the promotion of Chinese tourism in the
In China’s efforts to promote Xinjiang as a tourist destination, he sought to cover his human rights violations against Uighurs by supporting buildings, installing new infrastructure and building false historic sites, Magnus Fiskesjö wrote in the diplomat before speaking to RFA.
He compared these efforts to a German travel guide recently discovered from 1943 for tourists who took care of Poland.
Chinese officials have adopted similar practices adopted by the Nazis, which allowed tourists to go to an “occupied area … under the control of the military and the police so that they can channel tourists to safe places where they only see what the government wants them to see,” Fiskesjö told RFA.
“It was their attempt to present the situation as usual,” he said. “The Nazi government would say:” We have everything under control. There is nothing to fear, and you can be a tourist. »»
Muslims are forbidden to eat pork. According to Islamic rules, halal meat, such as chicken and beef, must be derived with separately prepared foods and utensils cleaned by Muslim staff.
In cities such as Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai, more restaurants receive Halal certification, while hotels and stations are increasingly offering halal meals and prayer facilities.
These efforts have enabled Muslim travelers to sail more easily on the vast regions of China without worrying about food restrictions.
“More and more restaurants get halal certification, and in some of the least developed cities, local businesses are also starting to respond to Muslim tourists,” Benarnews NGO Tan Cheah, Suka Travel consultant told Benarnews. The agency specializes in Muslims holidays in China.
For the Muslim traveler Muhammad Nurabrar, 24, a Malaysian who recently visited Shanghai, Guangzhou and Yiwu, the growing availability of Halal food was a welcome change.
“There are a lot of Arab restaurants and cafes in big cities,” he told Benarnews.
“Chinese Muslim cuisine, like” mee tarik ” [pulled noodle]is good, but it doesn’t have exactly a taste for food at home. »»
“Each year, we see more halal restaurants open,” said Nurabrar. “It’s not yet perfect, but it certainly becomes easier to find halal foods.”
Back to the largest tourist fair in Malaysia, Chinese travel destinations dominated the space of 2.32 acres of the international center and Malaysia exhibitions, with plastered leading exhibitions through walls favoring favorable plans to Muslims.
Visiting packages in China, especially in its western regions, where large Muslim populations reside can be expensive. The Xinjiang packages can exceed 5,000 Ringgit (US $ 1,144) for a five -day trip, against 2,000 ringgit ($ 457) to 3,000 ringgit ($ 686) for trips to the main eastern cities such as Beijing and Shanghai.
Despite the higher costs, the demand remains strong, the agencies of the tour saying in Benarnews that they received a constant flow of reservations of Muslim travelers.
“We worked hard to respond to this growing market,” said Suka Travel NGO.
“The volume of Muslim travelers is developing, and even the seaside resorts open Halal restaurants to attract more tourists.”
Benarnews is an online media affiliated with the FRG.