Tomb Robberies in China: Not Effectively Prohibited after a Decade, Nor Enough Attention Given

CHP: China Heritage Update 26 Aug 2005

Starting from early 1990's, the robberies of the ancient cultural relic remains, as well as the ancient tombs in China became more and more rampant. By the end of 1990's, the Chinese archeologists can hardly find a tomb or cemetery that has been intact. As a result of the frenzied plunder, many significant details about a few important historical eras, such as the Liao Dynasty founded in northern China, can only be speculated upon.

Now, the tomb robbers are targeting shipwrecks in addition to the tombs. What is the situation like now? No one can tell. What we know is that this issue has not received the attention it should. Guardians of cultural relic sites in Shaanxi have not recovered from their wounds inflicted by the robbers, then we heard a Qing Dynasty wrecked ship was ransacked again, losing over 10,000 pieces of the blue and white porcelain of the Kangxi reign. When those cultural relic collectors and dealers directed the laborers to rob the porcelains in the sea, they rarely fear being punished by the law or the government authorities, because past experience tells them that the law enforcement sectors of the government will not show up promptly.

Law legislators have obviously noticed the existence of the problem. A search of the relevant regulations shows that the legal protection afforded to underground cultural relics is very strict, and the punishment of the tomb robbers is very severe; the regulations on the collection, trade and traffic of the cultural relics in China are similar to those of the developed world. According to the foreign news resources, the domestic cultural relic protection administration is working closely and actively with a few foreign countries, including the United States, to draft a bilateral agreement to jointly crack down on and prevent cultural relic smuggling. No doubt, the basis of the law is positive and clear, and the government's approach is becoming more proactive than before.

To discuss this issue today, we must make it clear about two relevant and most important facts: first of all, the regulations of law have not been implemented strictly to a large extent. When we compare in accordance to the "Law of Cultural Relic Protection" and the Implementation Regulation of the Law of Cultural Relic Protection, and Criminal Law, we find that there is still a much room for the government to improve. Many practices that we witness everyday are in fact strictly prohibited by the law. Secondly, the regulation of law has not been implemented largely because the relevant cultural relic administrative departments have no such capability. We can say with certainty that our cultural relic administrative departments, the main law enforcement party, lose points in all aspects from the number of staff, financial and equipment support to technology support. Ten years ago, the cultural relic robbers were able to exploit a wrecked ship of the Song Dynasty, but until nowadays, there is not even one single boat dedicated to the protection of the underwater cultural relics all over China. The lack of competence of the cultural relic administrative departments also reflects in the area of the setup of the administrative organs. For example, the responsibilities of a few law enforcement institutions have been clearly stated in a law approved a few decades ago, but these institutions are still not in existence even today. These sort of things look like a joke, but is the harsh reality.

Frankly speaking, it is a very difficult mission to completely stamp out the criminals robbing the ancient cultural relic remains, the ancient tombs and cemeteries. But in the long run, if the law is not enforced, and the responsibilities of the government as provided by law are not fulfilled, and the capability of the cultural relic administrative departments are not improved, then the tomb robbery practice can hardly be effectively prevented. Everyone agrees that the history of China is an uninterrupted one, but due to the unbridled tomb robberies, this continuity is now disappearing. Who should then be responsible?

(Translated by Matthew Hu from www.wildchina.com)

Beijing Cultural Heritage Protection Center (CHP)
http://www.bjchp.org

Suite 2308, Building 5
East Zone 1, Tiantong Garden,
Dongxiaokou Town, Changping District,
Beijing, 102218, China
Telephone: +86 10 61768040, +86 13366082836
Email: information@bjchp.org

How to Oppose the APP Yunnan Project

CHP: China Heritage Update 20 Aug 2005

In our last update we discussed how the Asia Pulp and Paper (APP) project of planting eucalyptus plantations in Yunnan will doom the rich ethnic cultures of the region. To oppose this terrible project, we propose three tactics:

The first is to call upon everyone to cease buying APP's products. APP manufactures paper products, with the brands Asia Pulp and Paper and APP, on sale throughout China. We should use every channel of communication to let consumers know that APP's ill-gotten wealth are accumulated at the expense of destruction of natural environment and cultural heritage. To buy APP's products is to support the destructive activities of APP. Government entities, educational institutions, the media, hotels and restaurants are the big consumers of paper products, so we propose writing to the managers and procurement officers of these institutions to ask them to boycott APP products. We should also write to commercial associations, urging them to also boycott APP products.

The second is to rally as many people and organizations as possible to put pressure on the Yunnan provincial authorities to cease their cooperation with APP. Without the support and approval of the Yunnan government, the APP project cannot go forward. We should lobby the Yunnan provincial government, the Yunnan Development and Reform Commission, the Yunnan Forestry Bureau, the Yunnan Economic Commission to demand that they cease support and approval of the project. At the same time, we should lobby the Ethnic Minorities Commission, the Labor Commission, the Soil Resources Bureau, The Cultural Affairs Bureau, the Environmental Protection Bureau, and the Provincial Tourism Authority to do something concrete to stop the project. Corrupt officials are the same as avaricious businessmen, timid and anxious to please foreigners, so any international organizations or financial institutions working in Yunnan can play an important positive role.

The third route is to bring legal action. The APP eucalyptus plantation project in Yunnan violates the law in several areas. According to the 32^nd clause of the Forestry Act, the harvesting of trees from a forest must be authorized by permit, and conducted within the limits authorized by the permit. But APP has been felling trees without permit in many places. According to the Environmental Impact Assessment Act, an environmental impact assessment should be conducted on the project, and there must be provisions for mitigating or preventing any negative environmental consequences of a project. Such environmental impact assessment has not been conducted on the APP project, so the project should be immediately halted. Due to the illegal cutting, and to the lack of action on the part of the authorities, forest resources have been destroyed, the ecology and ethnic culture have been damaged, and the rights and livelihood of the people in the area have been violated. In bringing suit, the initiators should be those people and legal entities whose rights have been violated, and the accused should be the legal representative of the project, plus all Yunnan provincial government organizations that have had a hand in it. The action can be brought in the Yunnan courts.

The Communist Party and the government of China stress that China must pursue a road of sustainable development, and that the country must strengthen the use of the rule of law in the governance and administration of the country. That is an entirely correct policy that receives the enthusiastic support of the entire people of the country. The three methods we propose for opposing the APP project are designed to protect the rich ethnic cultures of the people of Yunnan and also to support the rule of law policies of the Communist Party and the government of China.

Beijing Cultural Heritage Protection Center (CHP)
http://www.bjchp.org

Suite 2308, Building 5
East Zone 1, Tiantong Garden,
Dongxiaokou Town, Changping District,
Beijing, 102218, China
Telephone: +86 10 61768040, +86 13366082836
Email: information@bjchp.org

Eucalyptus Plantations: The Threat to Yunnanese Ethnic Groups

CHP: China Heritage Update 12 Aug 2005

Asia Paper and Pulp (APP) is one of the world's largest producers of pulp and paper. According to Friends of the Earth's web site, this Indonesian company is responsible for destroying a large area of Indonesia's rainforest. Since August of 2002, with the support of some departments of the provincial government, APP has taken control of 27.5 million mu of land in Wen Shan, Lin Cang, and Si Mao districts of the province and used the land to start eucalyptus plantations for use in the first stage of its integrated pulp and paper operations.

We believe that if this APP project is not stopped, not only will there be clear deterioration in the natural environment, but the richness of southern Yunnan's minority group ethnic group cultures will remain in name only.

Southern Yunnan is an area of concentration for minority groups. Their way of life and culture are inextricably tied up with the forests and streams of their habitat. When the Dai people describe their villages, they often emphasize. In the front of the village we fish, behind the village we hunt, so we build our villages facing water with hills behind us. The sacred trees in the distant peaks are their spiritual refuge; their favorite delicacies are plucked from the forests and streams; the mountain streams flow into village ponds in which the villagers bathe and wash their clothes, exchange gossip, and pass on the stories of their forebears. Fast flowing streams surround the villages, the elders exchange courteous greetings, and the cries of children at play mix with the clip-clop of the oxen hoofs on the stone flagging of the village streets thus life passes tranquilly and peacefully in the villages of the mountain valleys.

Each village is a culture unto itself. The large and small villages of the minority peoples are scattered about the mountains of southern Yunnan and their lives are in harmony with the primeval forests, where waterfalls connected one to the next by clear streams are accent the landscape, forming one of the most gorgeous cultural landscapes in the world.

From the perspective of preserving minority cultures, the APP eucalyptus plantation project is wrong for at least two reasons. First, eucalyptus is a fast growing imported species, with a history of planting in China of less than 120 years. The principal characteristic of eucalyptus is that it has an extraordinary capacity to consume the fertility and moisture content of the soil in which it grows. Experts compare a eucalyptus tree to a water pump; eucalyptus trees do not coexist with streams.

Second, the eucalyptus plantation plan covers a huge area: in Wen Shan Prefecture, 5.5 million mu, in Lin Cang 10 million mu, and in Si Mao Township 12 million mu. APP considers the land that is to be used for the plantations to be hilltop waste land. The mountains that have given rise to one of the world's loveliest cultural landscapes is waste land in the eyes of APP! This land is to be stripped of its spirit, and its trees are to be consigned to the soulless timber factories. The streams will dry up, the forests will disappear, and the villages, now so full of life, will face death, while their inhabitants, now rendered poor and without hope, will have no choice but to pack up and become environmental refugees.

With the ever increasing speed of urbanization, and the accompanying destruction of forest resources, the number of villages of the minority groups in southern Yunnan has already greatly decreased, and many unique cultural traditions have already vanished. At this time, the Chinese Communist Party and the government of China have clearly recognized that economic development must rest on a foundation of environmental conservation and cultural heritage preservation, and they have clearly put forward a policy of advance on a sustainable path of development.

The wealth to flow from APP's plantation project is ill-gotten gains, acquired at the expense of destruction of the environment and destruction of cultural heritage. A small group of people in Yunnan have conspired with this Indonesian pulp and paper behemoth to seek financial gains at the expense of the common good. We hope that everyone will resist this plantation project, and will exhaust every remedy to exhort those few Chinese in Yunnan to cease abetting this foreign company in carrying out its destructive activities.

We also propose that everyone demonstrate wisdom in assisting minority peoples to build prosperous lives in their villages, so that they do not become environmental refugees adding to the flow of immigrants into China's already over-packed cities. Each village has its own indigenous handicrafts. If only we would help them to package and market these handicrafts, the protection and promotion of indigenous cultures can be a basis for village economic development.

Note: one mu equals 1/15 hectares

Beijing Cultural Heritage Protection Center (CHP)

http://www.bjchp.org

Suite 2308, Building 5
East Zone 1, Tiantong Garden,
Dongxiaokou Town, Changping District,
Beijing, 102218, China
Telephone: +86 10 61768040, +86 13366082836
Email: information@bjchp.org

Slow and Steady Wins the Games

CHP: China Heritage Update 4 Aug 2005

Among the many projects being implemented to build "New Beijing, Great Olympics" for the hosting of the 2008 Olympic Games, the Beijing government has adopted a "Plan of Cultural Relic Preservation for the Olympic Games". Municipal funding has been increased for cultural relic preservation. The attention being accorded to cultural heritage protection is of course to be welcomed, and CHP supports the plan in general terms. But when we look at the plan in greater detail, we fear that the ill-considered haste with which it is to be implemented could result in permanent and needless damage.

What does the Cultural Relic Preservation Plan consist of, and wherein do we perceive the dangers to lie? The Plan focuses on renovating of the views of the "Two Axes," restore the appearance of the "Five Districts," and to rebuild the "Six Scenic Sites."

The "Two Axes" refers to the two lines on which imperial Beijing was laid out in the Ming Dynasty by the Yong Le Emperor, one north-south and one east-west. The Central Axial Line, along which the Temple of Heaven and the Forbidden City are situated, runs through the city center. The second axis, the Chaoyang-Fucheng Line runs from Chaoyang Gate in the East straight across the old Ming-Qing City to the Fucheng Gate in the West.

The "Five Districts" are the architecture and scenery surrounding the Shi Sha Hai Lake, a replica of the traditional Chinese gardens, pavilions, and corridors; the Guo Zi Jian, or Capital Library, a former haven for Confucian students and scholars preparing for the imperial examinations; the Liu Li Chang commercial center, a street lined with ancient style bookshops and antique stores; the Imperial City, containing within it the Forbidden City and Tiananmen; and the Drum and Bell Towers, which are the center of a conserved area of ancient hutongs and traditional courtyard houses.

The "Six Scenic Sites" refer to the Western Scenic Area; the Beijing Sector of the Great Wall; the Imperial Tombs preservation area; the remains of the ancient canal culture in Tongzhou district; the Wanping historical relic preservation section, where the Marco Polo Bridge is located; and the temples of the western suburban area of Beijing.

Though CHP supports the increased attention and funding that cultural heritage protection projects are receiving, we believe that racing to meet a 2008 deadline for completion of these projects will ultimately prove to be more damaging than beneficial to many of the historical sites. The number and magnitude of restoration projects that the Beijing government has proposed cannot be properly undertaken in such a limited amount of time. The process of restoration takes time; it requires several years of initial surveys, research, and investigation. In addition, Chinese laws emphasize: "In the repairing, maintaining and removing immovable cultural relics, the principle of keeping the cultural relics in their original state shall be adhered to." (Law of the People's Republic of China on Protection of Cultural Relics, Article 21) Similarly, generally accepted best international practice discourages hasty and superficial repair of ancient relics.

We note in the Cultural Relic Preservation Plan the use of the words zhengzhi and chongxian. These two words are difficult to render in English, but both give a sense of improving upon the past, doing something better than the original: zhengzhi would be a bit like giving a facelift to a site, while chongxian really implies rebuilding (and not always rebuilding the same as the original that was replaced). These words we feel are not appropriate for a well conceived historical preservation project, and do not accord with best international conservation practice.

On the cultural heritage side of its preparations for the 2004 Olympics Games, the Greek government set an excellent example of how to undertake restoration work properly. It did not insist on the early completion of the Acropolis restoration project, but instead allowed qualified experts sufficient time to study and survey the site, refine project planning, and accurately document project progress. Had the Greek government forced premature completion of the project, the Acropolis, a priceless cultural heritage site, would have suffered irreparable damage and much of its authentic cultural history would have been lost. The resulting success of the Acropolis restoration project generated awareness among both residents and visitors of not only the importance of cultural heritage protection itself, but also of the meticulous process that cultural heritage protection requires.

CHP recommends that increased funding for cultural relic preservation and protection in Beijing be accompanied by strictly abiding by the relevant laws, rules, and regulations concerning heritage restoration so that the task can be undertaken in a totally professional manner. We strongly advocate that the "Plan of Cultural Relic Preservation for the Olympic Games" be revised according to Getty Institute's "Principles for the Conservation of Heritage Sites in China". Some of the projects may not be completed, but Beijing will be seen by all the visitors who come to the city in 2008 and subsequent years to be setting the same high standards of historical and cultural conservation that were set in the previous Olympics by Athens.

In future CHP Updates, we will take a closer look at the details of some of these projects.

(Translated by D. Chu)

Photograph Original Yong Ding Men

Modern day renovation of Yong Ding Men

Beijing Cultural Heritage Protection Center (CHP)
http://www.bjchp.org

Suite 2308, Building 5
East Zone 1, Tiantong Garden,
Dongxiaokou Town, Changping District,
Beijing, 102218, China
Telephone: +86 10 61768040, +86 13366082836
Email: information@bjchp.org