China to strengthen cultural relic protection

BEIJING — The National Cultural Heritage Administration will work out a plan to better protect cultural relics and speed up the creation of a safety oversight platform in 2019.

Stressing the importance of such protection, Liu Yuzhu, head of the administration, said lax enforcement is a prominent problem that endangers cultural relics, at a meeting attended by cultural heritage administrators nationwide.

The administration noted that local authorities in some provinces failed to make clear the limits of protection areas for cultural relics and construction control zones.

“This has brought great difficulties to the rectification of illegal behavior. As a result, a number of illegal construction projects that destroy cultural relics and surrounding features have been carried out,” Liu said.

Liu ordered continued remote sensing monitoring of unmovable cultural relics, cracking down on cultural relics-related crimes, actions to close security loopholes, and stronger technical support for cultural relic protection.