Zheng Xiang, the second level inspector of the Criminal Investigation Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security of China, said in Beijing on the 13th that the new round of national special action to combat and prevent cultural relics crimes had achieved remarkable results. As of November 30, the national public security organs had cracked 2704 cases of various cultural relics crimes and recovered more than 61000 cultural relics.
On the same day, the Ministry of Public Security of China held a press conference on “Education and Rectification Achieve Results, I Do Practical Things for the Masses”, which announced the deployment of national public security organs and national cultural relics protection departments to jointly carry out special actions to combat and prevent cultural relics crimes in accordance with the law, including measures and results.
Since the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Ministry of Public Security, together with the State Administration of Cultural Relics, has deployed special actions to combat and prevent cultural relics crimes for four consecutive times. Since August 31, 2020, the Ministry of Public Security, together with the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, has organized and deployed a new round of national special action to combat and prevent cultural relics crimes.
Zheng Xiang said at the press conference that the focus of this action is to crack down on illegal and criminal activities such as the theft of ancient cultural sites and tombs, the theft of grotto temple carvings, the theft of ancient buildings and their components, and the theft of revolutionary cultural relics, strictly implement the responsibility of cultural relics protection, establish and improve the long-term mechanism of strict strike, strict prevention, strict control, and strict governance, and resolutely manage and protect the national cultural heritage.
He pointed out that the special action had achieved remarkable results. As of November 30, the national public security organs had solved 2704 cases of various cultural relics crimes, eliminated 585 cultural relics criminal gangs, and arrested 5368 suspect, including 22 fugitives under the A-level arrest order of the Ministry of Public Security, and recovered more than 61000 cultural relics.
“The number of cases uncovered, the number of suspects arrested and the number of cultural relics recovered all exceeded the total of the three previous special operations.” Zheng Xiang said.
In terms of major cases, he said that under the coordination and command of the Ministry of Public Security and the State Administration of Cultural Relics, local public security and cultural relics departments cooperated closely, and successively cracked 29 cases listed by the Ministry of Public Security for supervision, arrested more than 850 suspect, and recovered 14000 cultural relics.
At the same time, local public security organs and cultural relics departments have always taken the recovery of precious cultural relics as the primary task of their special actions. Among the cultural relics recovered in the special action, 73 were Class I cultural relics, 375 were Class II cultural relics, and 3827 were Class III cultural relics.
Zheng Xiang pointed out that the “4 · 3” extraordinarily large case of cultural relics theft and profiteering, which was investigated in Jiangyin, Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, involved the recovery of more than 1100 pieces of porcelain, lacquered wood, gold and silver and other cultural relics, of which two pieces of Longquan kiln porcelain of the Song Dynasty were first-class cultural relics. The “5.31” series of grave robbing cases uncovered in Anqing buried hill, Anhui Province, recovered 1696 cultural relics of all kinds, including 90 precious cultural relics above the third level. The public security authorities in Jiajiang County, Leshan, Sichuan, cracked the 4-year long case of the theft of Pangpo Cave cliff statues on August 20, 2017, and all 10 stolen and cut Buddha heads were recovered.
According to the press conference, in 2020, the number of registered cases of cultural relics crimes nationwide decreased by 20.15% compared with 2019, the lowest since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. (Xie Yanbing)