China releases website for missing, stolen cultural relics

China recently announced a new online platform for providing information on stolen or lost cultural relics and it has released more than 200 pieces of information on related relics as of Thursday.

The Stolen (Lost) Cultural Relics Information Publishing Platform of China had its launch ceremony held on Thursday in Xi'an, Northwest China's Shaanxi province. The website was released jointly by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage (SACH) and the Ministry of Public Security (MPS), news website thepaper.cn reported.

The organizers of the platform want to provide more concrete evidence to help China reclaim lost or stolen relics from overseas, and to provide information for a crackdown on any related crimes as well as to control the relics market, said thepaper.cn.

It could also be used as a way to get the public to join the protection work on relics. People are also encouraged to provide clues on helping find the relics, it said.

The Global Times on Thursday got a look at the nearly 200 bits of information the website published on lost or stolen relics and, in addition to names, photos and ages of the relics, it gives the time and location of the disappearance of the item. More than 10 million Chinese cultural relics have yet to be returned.