China has made headway in combating artifact-related crimes, with national procuratorial organs handling 11,402 public interest litigations relating to cultural heritage protection from January 2022 to September 2023, data from the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) shows.

From January 2021 to September 2023, 5,020 individuals in 1,785 criminal cases were prosecuted for obstructing the management of cultural relics, according to a press conference jointly held by the SPP and the National Cultural Heritage Administration (NCHA) on Monday.

Administrative departments for cultural relics have strengthened cooperation with people's procuratorates in the crackdown on cultural relics crimes and continuously improved the joint working mechanism, thus effectively punishing such crimes, said Chen Peijun with the NCHA.

More efforts will be made in the reporting of tip-offs, case investigation, joint research, and professional training, said Chen, adding that the NCHA will step up the identification and evaluation of cultural relics involved in the cases.