China is set to beef up the protection of cultural relics and sci-tech innovation in relevant fields during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025), according to a circular released by the General Office of the State Council on Nov 8.

In the face of an increasingly complex and uncertain international environment, it is essential to give full play to the unique advantages of cultural relics protection in presenting a true, three-dimensional and full picture of China, enhancing Chinese culture’s influence, and contributing to building a community with a shared future for mankind.

According to the circular, cultural relics protection should mobilize all social forces, and integrate protection and utilization of cultural relics into people's work and life, and improve related laws, regulations and enforcement mechanisms.

The leading role of sci-tech innovation in cultural relics protection should be kept with strengthened basic research, accelerated breakthroughs and application of urgently needed technologies, and intensified talent training and interdisciplinary cooperation.

By 2025, the safety of cultural relics will be significantly enhanced, and their protection will be improved. Meanwhile, sci-tech innovation will make great progress in the sector, with the optimized structure of cultural relics institutions.

Social participation in cultural relics will continue to be invigorated, systems and capacity for cultural relics management will be preliminarily modernized, said the circular.

By 2035, the circular said, China will build a working system for protection and management of cultural relics in line with the goal of building China into a cultural powerhouse, and sci-tech innovation and talent cultivation will underpin China’s protection, application and research on cultural relics.

Ensuring safety of cultural relics resources is central to the protection, and it calls for an improved cultural relics resources management system, a national database for cultural relics resources, a long-term mechanism to ensure safety of cultural relics, and stronger administrative enforcement and oversight of cultural relics.

The circular also highlighted further efforts in sci-tech innovation in the field. China will strengthen basic research, push for breakthroughs in key technologies, accelerate upgrading of special equipment, optimize allocation of scientific and technological resources, and enhance display of cultural relics through sci-tech means.

In addition, efforts will be made to enhance the capability and sci-tech levels of archaeological work, improve protection of cultural heritage items, and management and application of revolutionary cultural relics, and stimulate creativity of museums in showcasing cultural relics.

In order to display cultural relics and integrate them into aspects of social life, the circular emphasized construction of identification systems for Chinese civilization on the basis of cultural relics resources, and interpretation of cultural relics’ value.

International exchanges and cooperation will be reinforced, said the circular, adding that teams of professional talent working on cultural relics protection will be expanded.