Second 3-year protection plan for heritage underway

After a three-year nationwide campaign to protect cultural heritage, progress has been made in curbing crimes, the National Cultural Heritage Administration said in a news conference in Beijing on Wednesday.

The joint action, which focused on cracking down on heritage-related crimes, was launched by the administration and Ministry of Public Security in August 2020, and more than 4,200 cases had been dealt with by October, according to Chen Peijun, director of the supervision department of the national administration.

About 9,700 suspects have been detained, and around 93,000 lost artifacts have been retrieved by police.

"Security is the baseline of heritage protection," Chen said. "Thanks to close cooperation between our administration and other law-enforcement departments, we can scare off culprits in the long term."

Chen also revealed that a new three-year campaign has recently been launched, which mainly aims to fight against safety violations of ancient architecture, grotto temples and ancient tombs.

Other than human violations, fire is another major threat to heritage. In the past three years, more than 63,000 fire drills have been organized at heritage sites nationwide, and 33,000 related training programs have also been held.

About 350 million yuan ($50.2 million) has been allocated by the central government since 2020 to support the installation of 1,300 security facility programs at heritage sites nationwide, including 480 fire alarm systems.

Between 2020 and 2022, 10 fires were reported annually on average at cultural heritage-related units in China, one-third fewer than before.

All provincial-level administrative regions on the Chinese mainland have included cultural heritage safety into the evaluation system of local governments.

"Provincial governments are thus urged to better supervise those in charge of heritage," Chen said. "Proper protection of heritage is also a great achievement in politics."