Heritage plan stresses digital tech, cooperation
China will put stronger protection and broader international cooperation at the center of its cultural heritage preservation policy for the upcoming five years, according to a five-year plan issued late last month by the General Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council.
As cultural heritage carries a splendid civilization, transmits history and culture, and sustains the national spirit, the plan calls for a nationwide cultural heritage resource database, tighter legal and regulatory oversight, stronger disaster monitoring, and greater use of technology, such as artificial intelligence and drones.
By 2030, the country aims to complete a comprehensive survey of cultural heritage resources, basically streamline its supervision system, further improve laws and regulations, continue to expand its talent pool, and make protection inspections effective.
The plan builds on a shift already visible in recent conservation work, with technology increasingly being used not just to document heritage, but also to support protection and restoration.
In Gansu province, for example, a digitalization project for a roughly 200 kilometer section of the Great Wall began in 2021. A technical team used unmanned aerial vehicles and remote-sensing mapping to survey about 25 square kilometers and produce panoramic 3D models.
The project illustrates how digital records can give conservation teams more precise information about deterioration and the surrounding environment.
Beijing has taken a similar approach to the Central Axis, a 7.8 km historic urban axis with more than 700 years of history. Digital technologies have been incorporated into preservation and management efforts. In 2024, the Beijing Central Axis was added to UNESCO's World Heritage List, giving international recognition to a conservation effort combining historic urban protection with modern digital tools.
Besides the application of technology, the plan also calls for more joint archaeology and museum exchanges, international restoration projects and cooperation against the illicit trafficking of cultural property.
Recent cases show how this approach works in practice. In Luxor, Egypt, the first Egyptian-Chinese joint archaeological mission has worked at the Montu Temple since late 2018. By 2024, nearly six years of excavation and research had produced new findings and strengthened cooperation between archaeologists from the two countries.
China has also expanded heritage conservation partnerships abroad with more than 80 joint archaeological projects conducted since 2020 between China and 30 other countries.
Repatriation is another major part of the international effort. One of the latest cases was late last month, when the United Kingdom returned 12 cultural relics and artworks to China at a handover ceremony at the Chinese embassy in London. More than one week prior to the London handover ceremony, US authorities returned 64 cultural relics, artworks and paleontological fossils to China.
The new plan points to a more systematic model of heritage protection, with better inventories and legal safeguards at home, wider use of digital technology, and deeper international cooperation in archaeology, conservation, exhibitions and repatriation.