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China recently called for enhanced efforts to combat cultural relics crimes, which now combine the rapid theft, carrying away and smuggling of valuable antiques.

This was a shared proposal raised by the heads of China's Ministry of Public Security (MPS), General Administration of Customs (GAC), and State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC), who were in Beijing for the meeting of the cultural heritage administration which opened on Dec.19.

The MPS urged setting up a cooperative system across a range of government administrations and provinces to prevent and combat such thefts, and reward ordinary people who expose them and the police who solve relevant cases.

Huang Zuyue, vice-director of the Department of Criminal Investigation of MPS, said local public security departments had carried out regional campaigns against cultural relics offenses. From January 2000 to October 2002, Chinese police had handled 3,189 cases, arrested 3,780 suspects, and seized over 4,707 cultural relics, he said.

Chinese police had also strengthened security checks and inspections in museums. In cooperation with international colleagues, Chinese police had recovered a number of stolen Chinese antiques from overseas, Huang said.

Huang said the number of relic cases had increased to 1,170 in 2001 after a record high of 1,000 in 2000. Cultural relics offenses spread across 25 provinces and regions, up from 18 in 2000. The crime had become more violent, and combined theft, transporting and smuggling contraband out of China, and used Internet and computer technology.

GAC vice-director Liu Wenjie said since 1998, the administration had seized 25,000 cultural relics and more than 50 major cases involving 70 criminals had been handled.

The administration also invited cultural relics experts to help improve GAC staff members' ability of cultural relics appraisal. So far, 28 Customs employees have been named cultural relics appraisers by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, Liu said.

SAIC's vice-director Han Xinmin said the SAIC would step up efforts to supervise the cultural relics market, including their management and auction.