Law must better protect cultural relics

SPEAKING TO THE MEDIA in Beijing on Saturday at the start of the session of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, China's top political advisory body, Liu Yuzhu, head of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, said the safety of cultural relics is the bottom line and red line for the administration. Guangzhou Daily comments:

During a loan exhibition of 10 Terra Cotta Warriors to a museum in the United States, a young man snapped off the thumb of one of the figures, and hoping to hide what he had done by putting it in his pocket and walking off with it. The incident rings the alarm for better protection of cultural relics.

According to the Shaanxi Provincial Cultural Relics Exchange Center, which is responsible for looking after the burial objects of the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC), this is the first time any damage has been done to any of the figures in the 40 years they have been displayed in overseas exhibitions.