# Islamophobia in China

Part of a series on Islam in China :
History
By dynasty
Tang
Song
Yuan
Ming
Qing
Rebellions and revolts
Jahriyya revolt
Panthay Rebellion (1856–1873)
First Dungan Revolt (1862–1877)
Second Dungan Revolt (1895–1896)
Afaqi Khoja revolts
Post-dynastic China
1912–present
Second Sino-Japanese War
Concerns and controversies at the 2022 Winter Olympics
Islamophobia
Migration to Xinjiang
Persecution of Uyghurs in China
Xinjiang internment camps :
Major figures
Afaq Khoja
Du Wenxiu
Hu Dahai
Hu Songshan
Kasim Tuet
Liu Zhi
Ma Anliang
Ma Bufang
Ma Buqing
Ma Fuxiang
Ma Gui
Ma Hualong
Ma Laichi
Ma Mingxin
Ma Qixi
Ma Wanfu
Ma Yize
Ma Zhu
Shams al-Din
Su fei-erh
Yeheidie'erding
Yusuf Ma Dexin
Wang Daiyu
Zhang Chengzhi
Zheng He :
Culture
Architecture
Cuisine (Uyghur)
Han Kitab
Mosques
Shrines
Sini script
Sufi orders
Uyghurs
Uyghur Arabic
Xiao'erjing
Islamic Association of China :
CitiesRegions
Hong Kong
Kashgar
Linxia
Macau
Ningxia
Sichuan
Xinjiang
Xunhua :
Groups
Ahmadis
Bonans
Dongxiang
Hui
Ili Turks
Kazakhs
Kyrgyz
Salar
Tajiks
Tatars
Tibetans
Utsul
Uyghurs
Uzbeks :
Islam portal • China portal :
vte :
Islamophobia in the People's Republic of China refers to the set of discourses, behaviors and structures which express feelings of anxiety, fear, hostility and rejection towards Islam and/or Muslims in China.
Negative views and attitudes towards Muslims in China are widespread, and some Muslim communities in China face legal restrictions on their ability to practice. Muslim prisoners in detention centers and internment camps have faced practices such as being force-fed pork. Prohibitions on fasting during Ramadan are couched in terms of protecting residents' free will.
In the 21st century, coverage of Muslims in Chinese media has generally been negative, and Islamophobic content is widespread on Chinese social media. Anti-Muslim attitudes in China have been tied to both narratives regarding historical conflicts between China and Muslim polities as well as contemporary rhetoric related to terrorism in China and abroad.

## History

Recent scholars contend that historical conflicts between the Han Chinese and Muslims like the Northwest Hui Rebellion have been used by some Han Chinese to legitimize and fuel anti-Muslim beliefs and bias in contemporary China. Scholars and researchers have also argued that Western Islamophobia and the "War on Terror" have contributed to the mainstreaming of anti-Muslim sentiments and practices in China.
Middle Easterners in China interviewed by the Middle East Institute in 2018 generally did not report discrimination. However, a Yemeni student said that he received unfavorable reactions from some Chinese when he stated he was a Muslim.
It has been reported that Muslims were being forced to eat pork in detention centers and in the Xinjiang internment camps. Since Xi Jinping became General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, campaigns against Islam have extended to the Hui people and Utsul community in Hainan. In 2023, NPR reported on ways that the Chinese government is actively preventing Chinese Muslim from going on the Hajj such as confiscation of passports. In Uyghur communities, Islamic education for children has been prohibited and teaching the Quran to children has resulted in criminal prosecution. In 2023, government efforts to "sinicize" a mosque in Yunnan by destroying its minaret and dome roof led to clashes with worshippers.

### News coverage

Traditional media in China were used to be very cautious on the coverage of ethnic issues—particularly Muslim issues, to foster a positive environment both for solidarity among China's different ethnic groups and religions and China's diplomatic relations with Muslim countries. Starting in 2015, hostility towards Muslims and Islam surged after series of terrorist attacks and the emergence of the European refugee crisis. Some observers contend that although negative stereotypes about Muslims have long existed in China, a global rise of Islamophobia, the influence of fake news, and the actions of the Chinese government towards their Muslim minorities have exacerbated Islamophobia in the country.
US-based researchers Rose Luqiu and Fan Yang contend in The Washington Post that anti-Muslim sentiment has been spurred by Chinese news reports, which tend to portray Muslims as prone to terrorism, or as recipients of disproportionate aid from the government. A 2018 study by the two researchers found that Chinese news coverage of Muslims and Islam was generally negative. The study found that non-Muslim Chinese hold negative views towards Islam and Muslims, and that some Chinese Muslims report discrimination and awareness of negative portrayals of themselves in the media.

### Online

The same two researchers analyzed over 10,000 posts on Weibo in 2019 relating to Islam and found that anti-Muslim sentiment was a common frame. Chinese Muslims users on the site reported that they faced challenges in attempting to have others understand their faith, due to the prevailing Han-centric discourse and government censorship.
In 2017, Gerry Shih of the Associated Press described Islamophobic rhetoric in online social media posts as due to perceived injustices regarding the Muslim minority advantages in college admissions and exemptions from family-size limits. In 2018, a South China Morning Post article similarly described online Islamophobia in China as "becoming increasingly widespread" particularly due to news of institutional preferential treatment for Muslim minorities and news of terrorist attacks in Xinjiang. A 2018 UCSD study of 77,642 posts from Tencent QQ suggested that online Islamophobia was especially concentrated in provinces with higher Muslim populations. An online movement against the spread of halal products in the country has also been reported.
According to Tony Lin of the Columbia Journalism Review, many users utilize popular sites like Weibo and WeChat to spread anti-Muslim fake news taken from western far-right media. He wrote that after the 2019 Christchurch mosque shootings, the most liked comments under Chinese social media posts and various mainstream media sites covering the incident were explicitly anti-Muslim or in support of the shooter. However, he also wrote that the comments were not representative of the Chinese population. Other articles have reported on the more varied netizen responses to the mosque shootings.