The Cover.cn: 

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the victory of the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea (1950-1953). Could you provide an update on the handover, return and burial of the remains of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army martyrs from the Republic of Korea (ROK), as well as the progress in locating the martyrs' relatives? Thank you.

Li Guiguang:

The work of welcoming back and burying the remains of the martyrs of the Chinese People's Volunteers in the ROK is related to the national image, the national sentiment, and the glory of the martyrs. The Party and the country have attached great importance to this work. Since the establishment of the MVA, we have thoroughly studied and implemented the important instructions of General Secretary Xi Jinping on commending martyrs, coordinated actively with the ROK side, worked closely with relevant military and civilian institutions, and welcomed back and buried a total of 324 martyrs for four consecutive years. In the process of welcoming back the remains of the CPV martyrs, we have continued to optimize the etiquette arrangements and adopted various means to express respect for martyrs from all walks of life. To be specific, the handover task was performed by the honor guards of the People's Liberation Army. The aircraft carrying the remains of the martyrs were welcomed with a water salute, the highest mark of respect in aviation, to pay tribute to heroes and martyrs. The remains of the CPV martyrs were carried by Y-20 transport aircraft and escorted by J-20 stealth fighter jets. The motorcade carrying the remains of the CPV martyrs was escorted by police motorcycles. Gun salutes, with the highest regulation of etiquette, were fired at the burial ceremony. We have also launched online and offline publicity and education activities themed on "welcoming back the heroes" to promote the great spirit of the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea.

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the signing of the Korean armistice agreement. More attention has been paid to the work concerning the handover, repatriation, and burial of the remains of the CPV martyrs in the ROK. We are actively making preparations and keeping close communication and negotiations with the ROK side to make arrangements for relevant work. We will disclose the follow-up progress to society in a timely manner. Meanwhile, we would also like to invite friends from the media to keep following the work on the handover, repatriation, and burial of the remains of the CPV martyrs in the ROK and jointly make good organization and publicity of this event. 

With the repatriation and burial of the remains of the CPV martyrs in the ROK, we have actively carried out activities to search for relatives of martyrs by extracting DNA information from the remains of 913 martyrs' remains returned over the past nine consecutive years, combined with clues providing pertinent information, such as seals in the relics returned, military records, military files, and related information. Authorities then looked for relatives, and conducted a comparison of DNA information to confirm their identities. With joint efforts, we have identified the identities of 10 CPV martyrs whose remains have been returned to China, and their relatives have been found. In the process of testing and comparison, we have continued to make breakthroughs in technologies and achieved major advances in identifying the possible relatives of martyrs and complicated kinship, and extracting DNA from the remains of martyrs wounded in war and buried for a long time.

Next, we will continue to carry out the work of searching for relatives of martyrs returned from the ROK, with an effort to find family members of additional CPV martyrs who have returned to China and identify more unknown martyrs. Thank you.