China pledges to enhance security control at cultural heritage sites

BEIJING - An official with the State Administration of Cultural Heritage (SACH) Monday warned against security loopholes at many heritage sites and vowed to enhance law enforcement.

"There are still outstanding problems concerning the security of cultural heritage sites," said Chen Peijun, a senior SACH official when briefing on the result of cultural heritage security inspections from last year.

"Awareness of cultural heritage protection needs to be raised among local officials and the public, and manpower of law enforcement in this aspect should be expanded," Chen said. "It is still quite common that the administration is kept in the dark since the parties in charge of preserving heritage sites do not report security accidents."

Last year, cultural heritage administrations across the country recorded about 60,000 security problems when inspecting 437,333 cultural heritage sites, and about 3,600 problems in heritage sites under national protection, according to SACH.

The SACH opened investigation into 90 cases involving heritage sites under national protection in 2017. Six of these cases involved criminal offense and were handed over to the police.

"SACH will enhance cooperation with the police, step up law enforcement and punish those who fail to close security loopholes," Chen said.