China Issues 15th Five-Year Plan for Cultural Heritage Protection

China's central authorities have issued the 15th Five-Year Plan for cultural heritage protection and transmission, setting structural targets through 2030. Jointly released by the General Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council, the directive establishes a unified regulatory regime across material and intangible heritage. Key mandates include enforcing archaeological surveys prior to land transfers, creating a unified national heritage database, and advancing the formulation of a dedicated Cultural Heritage Protection Law alongside updates to existing preservation statutes.

The plan establishes top-level institutional constraints on local urban planning and property development by standardizing requirements for survey and excavation before construction and land leasing. It shifts cultural preservation from reactive salvage to upfront administrative prerequisites backed by inspections.

The General Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council have issued the "15th Five-Year Plan for Cultural Heritage Protection and Transmission," according to state media reports on September 29, 2026. The document establishes institutional baselines and operational directives for safeguarding cultural resources through 2030. Under the plan, China aims to fully inventory its cultural heritage resources, rationalize regulatory systems, expand specialized personnel, and establish an effective supervision mechanism by 2030. The policy document is guided by central cultural directives and adheres to the principles of "protection first, rational utilization, and minimal intervention," seeking unified regulatory supervision over systemic heritage preservation. A central focus of the plan is the formal institutionalization of upfront preservation rules in urban and rural development. Local authorities are instructed to enforce the requirements of "investigation before construction" and "archaeological excavation before land transfer." Urban planning procedures must dynamically catalog underground cultural relic zones and historical blocks, incorporating newly identified assets into official protection registries. The framework also details wide-ranging survey and data integration initiatives. Authorities plan to consolidate results from the fourth national cultural relic census while launching a second national census for movable relics and a second national survey for intangible cultural heritage. These records, along with digital projects such as the China Relics Cloud, will be merged into a unified national cultural heritage resource database. On the legislative front, the plan calls for drafting a comprehensive Cultural Heritage Protection Law. It also specifies revisions to the implementation regulations of the Cultural Relics Protection Law, the Museum Regulations, the Regulations on the Protection of Famous Historical and Cultural Cities, Towns, and Villages, and the Intangible Cultural Heritage Law. The directive strictly prohibits fabricating historical assets under the pretext of conservation and emphasizes high engineering standards for structural repairs.