China calls for deeper cooperation with US after return of cultural relics

Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun called on China and the United States on Friday to work together to deliver more tangible benefits to both countries and their people, after US authorities returned 64 Chinese cultural relics, artworks and paleontological fossils this week.

China’s National Cultural Heritage Administration received the items in two batches in Washington and New York on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively. They had been seized by US law-enforcement authorities during investigations.

Since China and the US signed an intergovernmental memorandum of understanding aimed at preventing the illicit entry of Chinese cultural property into the US, more than 700 cultural relics and artworks have been repatriated to China in over 20 batches, Guo told a regular news briefing.

"This return is the latest outcome of efforts to implement the consensus reached by the two heads of state at their meeting in Beijing and demonstrates the broad prospects for building a constructive and strategically stable China-US relationship," he said.

Guo urged the two sides to continue working in a spirit of equality, respect and mutual benefit, meet each other halfway and get more concrete things done for the benefit of both countries and their people.