Police in Chinese Muslim heartland banned from drinking alcohol – even off duty
- Order issued before Lunar New Year in Ningxia Hui autonomous region, where a third of the population is Muslim
- Traffic police chief vows to develop new hobbies and eliminate ‘drinking at the table’
Ningxia Hui autonomous region in northwestern China, which has a large Muslim population, has banned all of its police officers from drinking alcohol under any circumstances, on or off duty, according to a local government notice.
The “Ningxia public security organs alcohol prohibition order”, issued a few days ago, was published on the official Weibo accounts of several police stations across Ningxia.
The notice said that any member of the police caught drinking alcohol, whether they were an officer or an auxiliary police worker, would be “investigated and strictly dealt with according to regulations”.
“This prohibition order not only bans us from drinking alcohol over the Lunar New Year period, but has no definite end date. Now it looks like it will be in place long-term,” an anonymous auxiliary police officerin Ningxia told Shanghai-based news outlet Thepaper.cn on Wednesday.
Another officer, from Ningxia traffic police, confirmed to Thepaper.cn that he had received the notice on February 3.
In a post on Tuesday from its official WeChat account, the Yinchuan traffic police department said it would “strictly implement” the new policy and “deeply recognise its no-tolerance stance”.