China’s Safeguarding of Cultural Heritage Signals Its Global Ambition
For China, the protection of antiquities is not just about safeguarding objects of its past – it is about defining its place in the future
By Deborah Lehr | As featured on SCMP
August 14, 2025
Xi Xia Imperial Tombs (Flickr, Xiquinho Silva)
China is making its cultural heritage protection a national priority – and a pillar of its global identity.
As one of the world’s fastest-growing art markets, China has taken steps in recent years to better safeguard its cultural heritage, both at home and abroad. From restoring ancient sites to recovering looted antiquities and building museums at a rapid rate, these efforts reflect more than a conservation push. They signal that the world’s most populous nation views the protection of its antiquities as central to its national identity and role on the global stage.
President Xi Jinping has repeatedly emphasised the importance of cultural preservation, making it a hallmark of his governance. Since taking office in 2012, he has addressed the issue repeatedly in inspection tours and key speeches, underscoring that heritage is integral to the “cultural confidence” China is promoting as part of his core ideologies.
This concept – that Chinese culture, values, and history are not subordinate to those of other nations but stand on equal, if not greater, footing – reflects a belief that China’s long and complex civilisation is not only a source of pride but also a guiding force for modern life and, increasingly, a tool of soft power.
This vision is taking shape through concrete policy and action. Historic neighbourhoods in cities such as Fuzhou, where Xi famously clashed with developers over conservation, are now protected and undergoing restoration. This shift represents a broader national trend of safeguarding urban cultural heritage in the face of modernisation.
In Xi’s first decade in office, China’s central government allocated over 100 billion yuan (US$14 billion) to cultural heritage protection, more than doubling the number of national priority protected cultural sites and adding eight Chinese sites to the Unesco World Heritage list. China now has the second largest number of World Heritage sites at 60, in close competition with Italy and its 61 sites.
(Unsplash, Peter Zhou)
The renewed focus is also evident in China’s investment in museum infrastructure, particularly expanding to second- and third-tier cities. China built 382 museums in 2022, 268 in 2023 and 213 last year, taking the total to 7,046. With over 91 per cent offering free admission, China’s museums attracted a record 1.49 billion visitors last year, reflecting growing public interest and demand.
This surge in attention has generally led to better preservation conditions for artefacts and increased public access to China’s ancient and diverse cultural treasures. But it remains challenging to find and train enough qualified experts to ensure the highest standards to curate the expanding museum collections.
To mitigate the gap, China’s National Cultural Heritage Administration issued a directive in 2022 calling on universities to increase enrolment in archaeology programmes and diversify related academic offerings to meet the country’s growing needs. By last year, China’s cultural heritage institutions employed 179,000 people, a 21 per cent increase from a decade ago.
China is also stepping up its role internationally by expanding its participation in international cultural heritage conventions and reclaiming cultural property lost to looting and colonial incursions, particularly since the mid-19th century. Over a million Chinese artefacts are estimated to be held in museums outside China, and these are just the documented pieces.
After a decade of diplomatic engagement, more countries are returning looted treasures to China. The United States has repatriated hundreds of cultural artefacts seized from smugglers, joining similar returns from Japan, Norway, the United Kingdom and France.
These repatriation efforts underscore China’s growing cultural assertiveness and determination to reclaim not only physical artefacts but also narrative control over its history.
Meanwhile, Chinese law enforcement agencies are intensifying crackdowns on the theft, trafficking, and smuggling of relics, sending a strong message that cultural crimes will not be tolerated. Last year alone, the authorities cracked more than 940 cases, recovering 16,000 cultural relics.
Central to this effort is the National Cultural Relics Crime Information Centre set up in 2011 by the National Cultural Heritage Administration and Ministry of Public Security. The Chinese authorities have also strengthened coordination with Interpol’s database of stolen artworks to support the recovery of historical relics. Over the years, they have dismantled hundreds of smuggling networks and recovered tens of thousands of cultural relics.
As the founder of an organisation dedicated to stopping the illicit antiquities trade, I view China’s recent steps as both commendable and consequential. When a country of China’s size and stature makes heritage protection a national priority, it sets a tone that reverberates globally. For China, the protection of antiquities is not just about safeguarding objects of its past – it is about defining its place in the future.