How China is stepping into the cultural repatriation void left by a retreating US

Illustration: Brian Wang As one of the biggest targets of wartime looting in centuries past, China is now positioning itself as a global pioneer in repatriating lost cultural artefacts.

In this article, the second in a , Xinlu Liang looks at how China is wielding law, diplomacy and a Global South coalition to rewrite the rules of restitution, filling a void left by a retreating US.

In January, as the United States was withdrawing from a raft of heritage and science bodies around the world, China was testing a new international model for cultural repatriation.

The effort was spearheaded by Chinese researchers and Japanese activists who came together in a lecture hall in Shanghai University to call for the return of a 1,300-year-old national treasure, the Tang Honglu Well Stele.

The stele was stolen from China in wartime more than a century ago and, as the advocates made their case, officials from the National Cultural Heritage Administration of China watched on – the clearest signal yet of Beijing’s intention to press Tokyo on the issue.

The demand for the stele’s return is grounded in extensive research, support in both countries and a fresh legal framework, marking a shift from the past when repatriation calls were largely made by lone voices outside officialdom with little professional documentation.

The case reflects China’s efforts to become not just a petitioner but an ambitious rules maker in global heritage restitution through a sophisticated, multipronged combination of domestic legislation, bilateral agreements, law enforcement cooperation and Global South alliances.

Yet, analysts caution, China’s ambitions may be hindered by oversimplified nationalist narratives, geopolitical tensions and the limitations of non-binding international conventions.

A bronze rabbit head from the Old Summer Palace’s zodiac fountain goes under the hammer at Christie’s Paris in 2009.

Beijing was unable to stop the auction of the looted Qing dynasty piece and its rat-head companion, but the winning Chinese bidder refused to pay as an “act of patriotism”.

Photo: Reuters The modern chapter of China’s repatriation efforts began in frustration.

In 2009, Christie’s Paris gnored Beijing’s requests to prevent the auction of two bronze fountainheads in the shape of Chinese zodiac animals, which had been looted from Beijing’s Old Summer Palace by Anglo-French forces in 1860.

Huo Zhengxin, then a young scholar of international law, was puzzled.

The fountainheads were

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