The public security departments across China have resolved about 5,900 cases involving cultural relics and retrieved about 100,000 pieces of cultural relics since September 2020, said the Ministry of Public Security on Friday.
The ministry has issued two batches of A-level wanted orders since 2020, launching a nationwide manhunt for 20 major fugitives involved in cultural relic crimes. Currently, 19 of them have been captured.
The police have viewed the recovery of cultural relics as a top priority in the fight against cultural relics crimes and traced the flow of cultural relics so as to make every effort to retrieve those involved cultural relics in these cases, said the ministry.
The ministry and the National Cultural Heritage Administration also improved the Stolen (Lost) Cultural Relics Information Publishing Platform of China and formulated joint long-term working mechanisms, offering comprehensive support for the prevention and the fight against cultural relics crimes, according to the ministry.
Additionally, in 2022, the ministry, the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate and the National Cultural Heritage Administration issued a document to standardize the handling of criminal cases of cultural relics.