The mosque in recent years expanded its minarets and the dome’s roof and a court ruled the additions illegal.
The article's headline is very misleading, since it's not the ancient mosque but the recent (illegal) expansions that are slated for demolition. That doesn't necessarily make the state correct here, but it's good to frame things in representative terms.
Yunnan is home to a sizable enclave of Hui, a predominantly Muslim ethnic group who have come under pressure in the face of a broad crackdown. President Xi Jinping has directed the Communist Party to “Sinicise” the country’s ethnic and religious minorities.
Worded to appear as though Xi's direction contained the word "Sinicize", especially since the word is hyperlinked, but that leads to another AJ article that reports on a Reuters article using the word, and my best guess at the Reuters article (which also uses the word in quotes) gives it literally no attribution.
Edit: It's not that Reuters article, that's from 2019 and the older AJ reference is from 2017. I don't feel like looking further for something that the shitheads at AJ didn't bother to link (or even just name the article)
Using the term "Sino" in general feels like very old-timey orientalism to me. Darn that evil Hsi Chin-P'ing
They were sinicized since some time ago, but it's bad practice to invent quotes to bolster the case that the PRC is seeking to further "sinicize" them by doing cultural suppression
Hui is a term used to basically referring to Descendants of Persian/mid east merchants staying in China since the Tang Dynasty (the terms sometime also includes Jewish merchants in the past). They intermarried with local people but kept the Islamic faith.
So yes they are Sinicized
