BEIJING: China's extraordinary historical treasures are under threat from increasingly aggressive and sophisticated tomb raiders, who destroy precious archaeological evidence as they swipe irreplaceable relics.
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The thieves use dynamite and even bulldozers to break into the deepest chambers and night-vision goggles and oxygen canisters to search them. The stolen artefacts are often sold to international dealers within days.
Police have stepped up their campaign against the criminals and the government is devoting extra resources to protecting sites and tracing offenders. This year it set up a national information centre to tackle such crimes. But the sheer scope of China's heritage, which includes thousands of sites, many of them remote, poses a challenge.
''Before, China had a large number of valuable ancient tombs and although it was really depressing to see a tomb raided, it was still possible to run into a similar one in the future,'' said Wei Zheng, an archaeologist at Peking University. ''Nowadays too many have been destroyed. Once one is raided, it is really difficult to find a similar one.''
His colleague, Lei Xingshan, said: ''We used to say nine out of 10 tombs were empty because of tomb-raiding but now it has become 9.5 out of 10.''
Their team found more than 900 tombs in one part of Shanxi and almost every one had been raided. They spent two years excavating two high-grade tombs from the Western Zhou and Eastern Zhou periods (jointly spanning 1100BC to 221BC) and found both completely emptied by thieves.
Experts say the problem became worse as China's economy opened up, with domestic and international collectors creating a huge market for thieves.
According to the Ministry of Public Security, police investigated 451 tomb-raiding cases in 2010 and another 387 involving the theft of relics.
In the first six months of that year, they smashed 71 gangs, detained 787 suspects and recovered 2366 artefacts. Those caught face fines and jail terms of three to 10 years, or life in the most serious cases.
Officials say tomb thefts have become increasingly professional. Gangs from the provinces worst hit - Shanxi, Shaanxi and Henan - have begun exporting their expertise to other regions. One researcher estimated that 100,000 people were involved in the trade nationally.
Officials have insufficient resources to prevent the crimes and often do not see the thefts as a priority. Others turn a blind eye after being bribed by gangs. But international collectors bear as much responsibility for the crimes as the actual thieves - the high prices they offer create the incentive for criminals.
Luo Xizhe of the Shaanxi Provincial Cultural Relics Bureau told China Daily: ''If we don't take immediate and effective steps to protect these artefacts, there will be none of these things left to protect in 10 years.''
He said provincial and national authorities planned to spend more than 100 million yuan ($15.29 million) on surveillance equipment for tombs in Shaanxi over the next five years. But video surveillance and infrared imaging devices for night-time monitoring cost 5 million yuan for even a small grave, he said.
Guardian News & Media
