NEW YORK - Human Rights Watch has exposed the Chinese government for significantly reducing the number of mosques in the Ningxia and Gansu provinces, writes Danielle Summer in the International Business Times.

As part of its "mosque consolidation" movement, China has violated the rights to freedom of religion and religious expression – says the Human Rights Watch.

Several mosques have been closed down and decommissioned, only to be transformed into secular facilities that restrict the practice of Islam in China.

In 2014, it was reported that China was home to almost 40,000 mosques, 39,135, with the largest number of places of Islamic worship being in the Xinjiang, Gansu and Ningxia regions.

In 2014, the Xinjiang region was home to the largest number of mosques in any area of China, measuring at 24,100. Out of Xinjiang's population of around 25.87 million inhabitants, according to Statista, 12 million people are part of the Muslim ethnic group – known as the Uyghurs.

For years, the Chinese government have been accused of committing atrocities, including a possible genocide, against the Uyghur population.

In 2023, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute estimates that 65 per cent of Xinjiang's mosques have been demolished or damaged since 2017.