China's cultural-heritage authority yesterday pledged it would take effective measures to protect the country's cultural relics in accordance with the newly amended Law on Cultural Relics Protection.
The new law came into effect on Monday after being approved by the National People's Congress Standing Committee.
The State Administration of Cultural Relics is drafting rules and regulations for the implementation of the law, administration sources said.
The administration said it believed the new law is very important to the country's relics protection as it calls upon not only the administration but also other departments - such as the construction, industry and commerce, public security, city planning and customs authorities - to take responsibility for preserving cultural relics.
The new law stipulates that governments at various levels should be responsible for assuring the intactness of cultural relics and appropriately settle the dilemma between safeguarding the past and building the future.
The legislation aims to curb the current one-sided emphasis on economic development and the insufficient protection of China's historical heritage in certain areas, said Shan Jixiang, director of the State Bureau of Cultural Relics.
He said the revised law, which has been extended from 33 clauses to 80, greatly reshaped the original one, which took effect 20 years ago.
"Although the law was once slightly amended in the early 1990s, new changes in social conditions have forced us to adopt new measures while giving up some outdated ones and clarifying those vaguely stipulated," said Shan.
He pointed out that the current law strengthened the preservation and management of unmovable heritage sites around the country.
China boasts around 400,000 sites of unmovable cultural relics nationwide, such as the Great Wall and the Imperial Palace. Of these, fewer than 70,000 have been protected at county, provincial or State level.
(China Daily November 1, 2002)
