Li Qun, member of the Standing Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference: Strengthening the systematic protection and rational use of cultural relics

　　China News Service, Beijing, March 10th: Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core has attached great importance to cultural relics work as never before.

The government work reports of the two sessions over the years have made important arrangements for cultural relics work. From 2013 to 2015, the emphasis was on "valuing the protection of cultural relics", and from 2016 to 2023, the protection, inheritance and utilization of cultural relics were fully focused on. This is consistent with the times and keeps pace with the times.

The 2024 Government Work Report proposed for the first time “strengthening the systematic protection and rational utilization of cultural relics”, which reflects the dialectical unity of inheritance and development.

　　"I understand that the systematic protection of cultural relics includes at least three levels of connotation." Li Qun, member of the Standing Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, deputy minister of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and director of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, said, "The first is to coordinate the protection of cultural relics resources of all types at all levels .Increase the protection of immovable cultural relics such as ancient ruins, ancient tombs, ancient buildings, cave temples, stone carvings, murals, important modern historical sites and representative buildings, and improve the important physical objects, artworks, documents and manuscripts of various eras in history. The preservation status of movable cultural relics such as books and materials. Improve the protection and management level of cultural relics protection units and precious movable cultural relics at all levels, and strengthen the protection and management of immovable cultural relics and general movable cultural relics that have not been approved and announced as cultural relics protection units."

　　"The second is to protect the cultural relics themselves and the surrounding environment as a whole." Li Qun said, citing relevant cases. "Some places are superficial in implementing the main responsibility of cultural relics protection, retaining only a few isolated cultural relics protection units, and leaving the surrounding old buildings, All old houses and old blocks have been demolished, and the historical features and cultural ecology have been seriously damaged. Such practices must be strictly prohibited. Last year, the cultural relics department entered the joint review mechanism of the State Council’s land and space planning to implement cultural relics protection in all levels of land and space planning. Management measures, overall planning and delineation of the protection scope of cultural relics protection units and construction control zones, underground cultural relics burial areas, underwater cultural relics protection areas, etc., have increased the coordination of the protection of the cultural relics themselves and surrounding protection."

　　"The third is to strengthen the coordinated protection of cultural relics and intangible cultural heritage, cultural and natural heritage. The national "14th Five-Year Plan" outline "strengthening the systematic protection of important cultural and natural heritage and intangible cultural heritage" as an important task of cultural construction, culture The symposium on heritage protection and inheritance proposed "building a large cultural heritage protection pattern". Cultural relics work is unshirkable and must be resolutely implemented. We will jointly promote the protection of historical and cultural cities, towns and villages, industrial heritage, agricultural heritage, water conservancy heritage, scientific and technological heritage, etc., and jointly preserve the legacy left by our ancestors. The precious heritage given to us must be fully protected and passed on, so that the people can truly see the mountains, see the water, and remember the nostalgia.”

　　Talking about "reasonable utilization", Li Qun said: "Protection and utilization are a pair of relationships that must be handled well in cultural relics work. Protection is the prerequisite for utilization, and protection must be the first priority. Utilization is the transformation of protection results, and we must ensure that cultural relics are protected." Under the premise of safety, we will promote the creative transformation and innovative development of China's excellent traditional culture, activate its vitality, and make the cultural relics collected in museums, the heritage displayed on the vast land, and the words written in ancient books come alive."

　　Shouldering the new cultural mission, cultural relics work will adhere to the guidance of Xi Jinping’s cultural thoughts, fully implement the spirit of the National Two Sessions, coordinate systematic protection and rational utilization, and promote high-quality development of cultural relics.

Li Qun said: "This year we will focus on several major events and effectively strengthen the systematic protection and rational use of cultural relics."

　　The first is to improve the legal and regulatory system for cultural relics protection.

“At the National People’s Congress and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, the work report of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee clearly stated that the Cultural Relics Protection Law will be revised in 2024.” Li Qun emphasized, “The State Administration of Cultural Heritage will fully cooperate with the revision of the Cultural Relics Protection Law and actively participate in the historical and cultural heritage protection laws and regulations. The formulation and revision of relevant regulations will be carried out in an orderly manner to promote the construction of laws and regulations such as the Great Wall, the Grand Canal, and red cultural resources, and build a solid legal barrier for cultural relics that should be protected."

　　The second is to improve the cultural relics protection and management mechanism.

Carry out the fourth national census of cultural relics, establish a general catalog of national immovable cultural relics resources, and improve the mechanism for identifying and publishing immovable cultural relics.

Implement the pre-emptive mechanism for the protection of cultural relics, and promote the implementation of the system design of "investigation first, then construction" of above-ground cultural relics and "archaeology first, then transfer" of underground cultural relics.

Establish a national cultural relics inspection system, improve the long-term mechanism for the safety of cultural relics, and weave a dense "safety net" for the protection of cultural relics.

As a shortcoming of systematic protection, the immovable cultural relics that have not been approved and announced as cultural relics protection units are numerous and difficult to protect.

Li Qun pointed out: "In response to this problem, this year the central government's special lottery public welfare fund invested funds to support the protection of immovable cultural relics that have not been declared as cultural relics protection units in areas with dense cultural relic resources. The financial support mechanism has been further improved."

　　The third is to improve the level of rational utilization of cultural relics.

“The government work report runs through the people-centered development idea, and cultural relics work must continuously enhance the people’s sense of gain, happiness, and accomplishment.” Li Qun proposed specific measures, “Build a world-class museum with Chinese characteristics, build a Chinese Civilize the exhibition display system, optimize free and open service measures, and deepen the cooperation mechanism between museums and schools. Improve the national cultural relics appraisal system and promote the orderly development of private collections and cultural relics markets. Prepare a special plan for the protection and utilization of revolutionary cultural relics, and implement a batch of contiguous protection of revolutionary cultural relics and overall display of major projects. Build and make good use of national cultural parks, archaeological sites parks, cultural relics protection and utilization demonstration areas, and cultural relics themed trails to better meet the diverse and high-quality spiritual and cultural needs of the people. Strengthen the publicity and dissemination of cultural relics, launch More high-quality cultural and museum programs will tell the story of Chinese civilization and expand the influence of Chinese culture."