A press conference was held on Aug 31 in Beijing on commemorations marking the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War.
Officials from the Ministry of Veterans Affairs (MVA) and the National Cultural Heritage Administration unveiled the fourth batch of national-level memorial facilities, sites and relics related to the resistance war, as well as lists of renowned martyrs and groups of heroes during the war. They also briefed the media on efforts to protect and restore war memorial facilities, sites and relics, and answered questions.
Vice-Minister of the MVA Ma Feixiong emphasized the ministry's ongoing efforts to strengthen the protection and management of memorial facilities, including collecting and verifying information on martyrs' memorial facilities, clarifying the number of such facilities and advancing information-based, digital and refined management.
In enhancing the quality and renovation of martyrs' cemeteries, a total of 270 million yuan ($37.8 million) has been invested in 43 construction projects for martyrs' memorial facilities, Ma said.
In addition, 2 billion yuan in subsidies has been allocated for the renovation of memorial facilities nationwide at the county level or below, facilitating the relocation of over 77,000 scattered martyrs' graves into dedicated cemeteries, he added.
Ma also highlighted his ministry's joint efforts with the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) in launching a special campaign and its close cooperation with the National Cultural Heritage Administration to improve the management and protection of martyrs' memorial facilities and relics.
Article 25 of the Law on the Protection of Heroes and Martyrs, which came into effect on May 1, 2018, stipulates the protection of heroes and martyrs as a statutory scope for procuratorial public interest litigation. It establishes the basic system for procuratorial authorities to initiate public interest litigation against actions that infringe on the names, portraits, reputations, or honor of heroes or martyrs, thereby harming societal public interests.
Since the law came into effect, procuratorial organs have actively collaborated with veterans affairs departments and cultural heritage protection departments, fully exercising procuratorial functions to handle a number of typical cases with high quality and efficiency focusing on protecting the names and portraits of heroes and martyrs, as well as memorial facilities and revolutionary relics.
On Sept 30, 2024, coinciding with the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China and the 90th anniversary of the departure of the Central Red Army on the Long March, the SPP and the MVA jointly released typical cases of procuratorial public interest litigation in the field of heroes and martyrs' protection in order to promote a collaborative and comprehensive governance framework for such protection.
