Decision of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress on Amending the Law of the People's Republic of China on Protection of Cultural Relics

(Adopted at the 31st Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Tenth National People’s Congress on December 29, 2007)

At its 31st Meeting, the Standing Committee of the Tenth National People’s Congress decided to make the following amendments to the Law of the People’s Republic of China on Protection of Cultural Relics:

1. Article 22 is revised to read, “Where immovable cultural relics are totally damaged, the ruins shall be protected and the damaged relics may not be rebuilt on the original site. However, where under special circumstances it is necessary to have such relics rebuilt on the original site, the administrative department in charge of cultural relics under the people’s government of the relevant province, autonomous region, or municipality directly under the Central Government shall submit the matter to the people’s government of the relevant province, autonomous region, or municipality directly under the Central Government for approval; and where a major site protected for its historical and cultural value at the national level needs to be rebuilt on the original site, the matter shall be submitted by the people’s government of the relevant province, autonomous region, or municipality directly under the Central Government to the State Council for approval.”

2. Article 23 is revised to read, “Where a memorial building or an ancient architectural structure owned by the State, which is verified as a site protected for its historical and cultural value, is to be used for purposes other than the establishment of a museum, a cultural relics preservation institute or a tourist site, the unit at the city or county level that is in charge of protection of the historical and cultural relics shall, through the administrative department in charge of cultural relics under the people’s government that originally verified and announced the site as such, seek the consent of the administrative department in charge of cultural relics at the next higher level, before submitting a report to the said people’s government for approval; where the unit at the provincial level that is in charge of protection of a site for its historical and cultural value is concerned, it shall submit the matter for examination and approval to the administrative department in charge of cultural relics under the provincial people’s government that originally verified and announced the site as such, before submitting a report to the said people’s government for approval; and where a major site protected for its historical and cultural value at the national level is to be used for other purposes, the matter shall be submitted by the people’s government of the relevant province, autonomous region, or municipality directly under the Central Government to the State Council for approval. Where the State-owned immovable cultural relics of the site that is not verified as one protected for its historical and cultural value are to be used for other purposes, the matter shall be reported to the administrative department in charge of cultural relics under the people’s government at the county level.”

3. The second paragraph of Article 40 is revised to read, “Where State-owned cultural institutions for the collection of cultural relics, for purposes of holding exhibitions, conducting scientific research, etc., need to borrow from each other cultural relics in their collection, the matter shall be reported to the administrative department in charge of cultural relics for the record; and where grade-one cultural relics in the collection of cultural institutions are to be borrowed, the matter shall be subject to approval by the administrative department in charge of cultural relics under the people’s government of the province, autonomous region or municipality directly under the Central government and be reported to the administrative department in charge of cultural relics under the State Council for the record.”

This Decision shall go into effect as of the date of promulgation.

The Law of the People’s Republic of China on Protection of Cultural Relics shall be amended correspondingly in accordance with this Decision and promulgated anew.