Taiwan cracks down on sales of mainland China noodles that said ‘you’re Chinese’

Taipei said it was banning sales of luosifen – also known as snail rice noodles – to protect local producers from unfair competition

But the messaging on some of the packaging may mean that politics was also a factor behind the ban

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Some of the noodles were sold in packets that carried a message that may be politically charged. Photo: Handout

Published: 4:02pm, 18 Jan 2023Updated: 4:12pm, 18 Jan 2023

Taiwanese officials have ordered stores to quit selling a kind of rice noodle soup from mainland China, citing protection of domestic food producers, after thousands of kilograms of the delicacy were smuggled onto the island.

But some of the packaging came with a message linked to Taiwan-mainland ties and analysts say Taiwan may be cracking down for that reason.

The foreign trade bureau of the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in statements on Monday and Tuesday that the authorities had discovered 791 cases of “smuggled” luosifen noodles over the past two years, equivalent to about 8.4 tonnes. The bureau says everything was confiscated and the sellers fined.

The ministry said it was “considering the situation of domestic production and protecting domestic industry players so as not to cause market substitution and getting crowded out, resulting in unfair competition”.

Luosifen translates literally to “snail rice noodles” and the dish traces its origin to the city of Liuzhou in the Guangxi region of mainland China.

Taiwan has long banned multiple types of noodles and vermicelli from the mainland, the ministry said on Tuesday. But Taiwanese can order many of these from mainland e-commerce websites and resell them locally.