According to Reuters news agency, the Ningxia officials "forcibly demolished" notice was shared online among the ethnic Hui Muslim community, and in a rare demonstration against the Chinese government, thousands of ethnic Hui Muslims had gathered at the mosque location to protest its planned demolition.[1][2] Public demonstrations are rare in China, because the government quickly suppresses any "hint of dissent".[6] However, shared videos on social media was showing large crowds gathered outside the Grand Mosque in the town of Weizhou to protect it.[6] The Hui are the largest of the 10 Muslim minority groups within China, and speak a variation of Mandarin — the language spoken by China's majority Han ethnic group.[3]