diff --git a/packages/bazel/test/ng_package/common_package.spec.ts b/packages/bazel/test/ng_package/common_package.spec.ts
index f64b10b0af..81d8b32012 100644
--- a/packages/bazel/test/ng_package/common_package.spec.ts
+++ b/packages/bazel/test/ng_package/common_package.spec.ts
@@ -24,6 +24,10 @@ describe('@angular/common ng_package', () => {
       expect(files.some(n => n.endsWith('.d.ts'))).toBe(true, `.d.ts files don't exist`);
       expect(files.some(n => n.endsWith('.js'))).toBe(true, `.js files don't exist`);
     });
+    // regression test for https://github.com/angular/angular/issues/23217
+    // Note, we don't have an e2e test that covers this
+    it('doesn\'t pass require in a way that breaks webpack static analysis',
+       () => { expect(shx.cat('locales/fr.js')).not.toContain('factory(require, exports)'); });
   });
 
   it('should have right bundle files', () => {
diff --git a/packages/common/locales/BUILD.bazel b/packages/common/locales/BUILD.bazel
index c061c1b6f7..8691c75962 100644
--- a/packages/common/locales/BUILD.bazel
+++ b/packages/common/locales/BUILD.bazel
@@ -13,5 +13,14 @@ ts_library(
 
 npm_package(
     name = "package",
+    replacements = {
+        # Workaround for https://github.com/angular/angular/issues/23217
+        # Webpack will detect that the UMD outputs from TypeScript pass the
+        # `require` function into the module, and cannot accurately track
+        # dependencies in case require was called.
+        # We don't actually import anything in the locale code so we can
+        # null out the require reference passed into the module.
+        "factory\(require, exports\)": "factory(null, exports)",
+    },
     deps = [":locales"],
 )