Photo: A screenshot of the mini-program

 
China has launched a platform to encourage the public to provide clues to track down missing and stolen Chinese cultural relics, domestic media reported on Wednesday. 

The platform is a mini-program built in China’s widely used social media platform WeChat, so users do not need to download any other applications or software.

A list of lost artifacts can be found in the middle of the page after logging in to the program. After clicking on a picture of a relic, a more comprehensive profile of the artifact will be revealed, including information such as time period of origin, original location, measurements and other properties. For each item, there is a button users can click to provide clues to help find these relics.

Besides the profiles of lost artifacts, there is also an introduction about relevant laws and regulations, as well as one section dedicated to gathering feedback from the public.

Back in 2017, the Stolen (Lost) Cultural Relics Information Publishing Platform of China was launched in Xi'an, Northwest China's Shaanxi Province. The website was released jointly by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage (SACH) and the Ministry of Public Security (MPS). 

The platform aims to provide more concrete evidence to help China reclaim lost or stolen relics from overseas, and to provide information for a crackdown on any related crimes as well as control the relics market. 

Analysts have pointed out that the newly launched mini-program and the website launched in 2017 could be used as a way to get the public to join efforts protect relics.