The Print-19 January 2022
Xi Jinping’s new Silk Road is being established through excavations as well. China wants to prove the reach of its history – from Tibet to Central Asia.
Archaeology has become a hot topic in China in recent years. Even the five-year plan for 2021-2025 seeks to elevate archaeology. On 17 January, Li Qun announced that China would “roll out and implement plans for archaeological work in the 14th five-rear plan period”. Li, head of China’s National Cultural Heritage Administration, was speaking at a conference where he said that 1,388 archaeological projects were conducted in 2021.
“Previous five-year plans on cultural relics were mainly drafted by specific government departments. For the first time, it’s improved to a national-level plan, which reflects the country’s great emphasis on the field,” Li Qun had said in 2021. The latest five-year plan has even set the ambitious goal of conducting archaeological research before major urban construction.
For Beijing, history has a strong political angle. Keeping a hold on how the past is understood is an important project for the Chinese Communist Party. Click here to read more.