Enhanced scrutiny, tech help protect cultural relics

China's continued efforts in safeguarding its cultural relics have achieved fruitful results, thanks to coordinated measures adopted by various departments.

In the past two years, the country has successfully solved over 1,200 cases of cultural heritage crimes and apprehended more than 3,500 criminal suspects, according to a news conference held on Wednesday by the State Council Information Office.

More than 3,100 "precious cultural relics" — those rated as national first-, second-, and third-grade relics — and over 470,000 other cultural relics have been recovered during the same period, it said.

Guan Qiang, deputy director of the National Cultural Heritage Administration, said a special action plan to combat and prevent cultural heritage crimes was implemented in September 2022 following the National Interministerial Joint Meeting on the Safety of Cultural Relics. The action plan is effective for three years.

"We will further intensify scrutiny on crimes involving cultural relics by taking decisive action against major instances of such violations and safety incidents, reinforcing disciplinary accountability, and encouraging local authorities to effectively fulfill their obligations," he said.

Remote-sensing satellites, big data analysis and other advanced technologies will be more widely used to promptly detect illegal activities, thereby ensuring the effective preservation of cultural relics, Guan said.

For example, remote-sensing satellites have been used this year to monitor all UNESCO World Heritage Sites and national-level cultural heritage sites under key protection in China.

China is home to 767,000 immovable cultural relics, such as ancient architecture, historical monuments, and archaeological sites, and about 108 million State-owned movable cultural relics such as artifacts curated by museums, according to the third national census on cultural relics, which was completed in 2011.

Guan said the fourth national census, which started in November, has rechecked about one-third of these registered immovable relics, and as of last week, around 18,000 such relics have been newly discovered.

More than 5,000 well-equipped teams comprising 45,000 well-trained personnel have been mobilized to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the census. "Various academic programs can be launched thanks to this large-scale investigation," Guan said.

As heritage architecture makes up about 53 percent of China's immovable cultural relics, Deng Chao, director of the heritage administration's department of cultural relics and historical sites, said that meticulous preservation of such architecture is among the priorities in the ongoing endeavor to safeguard cultural relics.

The huge number and rich variety of heritage architecture in China presents challenges for conservators.

Deng said that improving the surrounding environment is an essential step in conservation efforts, as it enhances the high-quality development of local communities and contributes to rural vitalization.

Concerted efforts have been made in recent years to establish a system to prevent and mitigate the impact of natural disasters on heritage architecture.

Since 2012, the fiscal expenditure of the central government has been used for the renovation of about 1,000 heritage structures that were registered as national-level cultural heritage sites under key protection.

In addition, special public welfare funds and bonds, among other measures, have been initiated by the central government to ensure the upkeep of heritage structures with lower protection levels.