BEIJING (AP) — President Xi Jinping must do more to maintain the country’s cultural treasures and herbaria and renew its glamour in the new era.
Xi, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks in an instruction on strengthening the protection, preservation and use of cultural heritage and herbalism.
This instruction follows the inscription of one cultural heritage and two herbal heritages of China on the World Heritage List through the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in July 2024.
UNESCO announced the inscription of the Central Axis of Beijing: a group of buildings that present the ideal order of the Chinese capital, the Badain Jaran Desert: sand towers, lakes and migratory bird sanctuaries along the coast of the Yellow Sea and China’s Bohai Gulf (Phase II) on its list at the UNESCO World Heritage Committee consultation held in New Delhi, India.
The inclusion of such heritage items is important for building China’s modernization that is characterized by material, cultural and moral progress and harmony between mankind and nature, Xi said, noting that it also adds a new luster to global civilizations.
Xi called for efforts to seize UNESCO’s inclusion as an opportunity to expand the comprehensive and systematic coverage of cultural and herbal heritage and make intelligent use of it to better meet people’s needs.
He also called for strengthening foreign exchanges and cooperation in this field, as well as efforts to make greater contributions to the practice of the World Civilization Initiative and build a network with a shared long-term for mankind.
Currently, China is home to a total of World Heritage sites.