New | Vanishing artefacts: China’s cultural treasures stolen or destroyed from lack of resources

The treasures of China’s thousands of years of culture face being plundered – sometimes violently – or disappearing under bulldozers as authorities either do not care or do not have the resources to look after them, China’s cultural heritage chief says.

In an interview published on Monday in the influential Communist Party newspaper the Study Times, Director of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage Li Xiaoji said the situation he faced in trying to protect the country’s culture was “severe”.

From 2009 to 2014, police uncovered more than 7,000 cases of cultural artefacts being stolen, smuggled out of the country or otherwise plundered, especially tombs, Li told the newspaper, published by the Central Party School which trains rising officials.

“These criminal activities are organised, use high technology and violence, and steal to order,” Li said, adding that efforts to crack down on such activity had achieved some results but that the road ahead would be difficult.

Another problem was that some local governments seemed not to care about the treasures in their jurisdiction, or simply lacked the ability to look after them.