Beijing praises repatriation of looted treasures as concrete proof of constructive US-China cooperation before high-level talks
2-MIN READ2-MINCaroline LinPublished: 7:00pm, 18 Sep 2026The United States has returned cultural relics to China ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s coming visit to Washington, a goodwill gesture paving the way for a positive summit and stabilising ties.At the handover ceremony at the Chinese embassy in Washington on Wednesday, China received 58 pieces of cultural relics and palaeontological fossils from the Cultural Property, Art and Antiquities programme of US Homeland Security Investigations.
A further six items were returned a day later by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office in New York.
Southern China’s biggest natural history museum opens in Shenzhen“The repatriation marks the latest step to implement the common understandings reached by the two presidents in their meetings in Beijing, and also demonstrates the broad prospects of building a constructive China-US relationship of strategic stability,” said Guo Jiakun, a spokesman for China’s foreign ministry, at a briefing on Friday.
“China and the US should go in the same direction in the spirit of equality, mutual respect and mutual benefit so as to accomplish more great and concrete things for the good of our two countries and peoples.”
