Multiple measures taken to protect Xizang's cultural characteristics, language: official

China

Multiple measures taken to protect Xizang's cultural characteristics, language: official

2025-03-29 15:23 Last Updated At：20:57

China attaches great importance to protecting, passing down and developing the fine traditional cultures of all ethnic groups and has taken multiple favorable measures to protect Xizang's cultural characteristics and language, an official of southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region said on Friday.

Wang Haizhou, head of the publicity department of Xizang, made the remarks at a press conference in Lhasa, capital city of Xizang on the release of a white paper on the progress of human rights in the region, issued by the State Council Information Office (SCIO).

The protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) in Xizang has steadily improved. Between 2012 and 2024, 473 million yuan (about 65.17 million U.S. dollars) from the central government and the government of the Xizang Autonomous Region was earmarked for the protection of ICH items on the national representative list in the region, the documentation and recording of the knowledge and skills of the bearers of ICH items on the national list, the training of new ICH practitioners, and the construction of new ICH protection and utilization facilities, according to the white paper.

Wang said that the culture in Xizang is an integral part of Chinese culture, and China has rolled out a series of favorable measures to promote the protection and development of outstanding cultures in ethnic regions.

He stressed that especially since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012, the excellent traditional culture in Xizang has received unprecedented protection and inheritance.

"First of all, our protection and inheritance of ICH is making substantial progress. The central government and the government of the Xizang Autonomous Region have invested a large amount of funds in supporting the protection of ICH in Xizang. Gesar, Tibetan Opera, and the Lum medicinal bathing of Sowa Rigpa of Xizang have been inscribed on the UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Xizang now boasts 2,800 items on the representative lists of all types and levels, with 1,668 inheritors. We only have about 3.7 million local residents," he said.

Cultural relics and historic sites, as well as ancient books and documents have been placed under sound protection in Xizang, the official noted.

"Secondly, we have comprehensively strengthened the protection, utilization, and development of cultural relics. Our country has invested nearly 400 million yuan (about 55.12 million U.S. dollars) in implementing three major key cultural relic protection and maintenance projects in Xizang, including the Potala Palace, Norbulingka, and Sakya Monastery. [At the end of 2018], a 10-year project with a budget of 300 million yuan (about 41.34 million U.S. dollars) was launched to conserve and explore the use of ancient documents, including the Pattra-leaf Scriptures in the Potala Palace," he said.

"Currently, in addition to the above-mentioned three world-class ICH, there are 70 key units under state protection and 661 units under protection at the autonomous regional level. Now, in accordance with the unified arrangement of the country, we are conducting the fourth national census of cultural relics. After the census is completed, we will further strengthen the protection of our cultural relics. Our Party and the central government attach great importance to the inheritance and development of the Tibetan language and script in accordance with the law," he continued.

The Tibetan language is widely used in publishing, media, and daily life. By the end of 2024, Xizang had 17 periodicals and 11 newspapers in the Tibetan language and had published 46.85 million copies of 8,794 Tibetan-language books, according to the white paper.

In addition to traditional media such as newspapers, magazines, radio programs, films, television programs, and the internet, new media have also been developed in the Tibetan language, including surging official accounts on social media. Their popularity has helped to expand the use of the Tibetan language.

AI agent OpenClaw becomes hot topic at China's "two sessions"

"Raising lobster" has sparked heated discussions in China's AI community and become hot topics at the country's ongoing "two sessions" this year.

The term "raising lobster" originated from the open-source AI agent OpenClaw, which uses a red lobster as its icon.

It has become a buzzword adopted by Chinese users to describe the process of setting up and training this smart assistant.

OpenClaw, created by Austrian developer Peter Steinberger, is designed to allow large-language models to operate computers autonomously, controlling files, executing commands and interacting through messaging applications.

"In fact, such an AI agent has liberated us first and foremost. This liberation represents a significant technological advancement. I used to say that technology changes our way of working, but that still refers to a revolution in tools. When I see Openclaw, I could not predict whether it would ultimately endure. But when I know more about this model, my first impression is that it doesn't merely change our way of working, it transforms the very nature of work itself. That's a fundamental difference," said Wang Jian, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and an academician from the Chinese Academy of Engineering.

Many Chinese tech companies have since jumped on the trend, unleashing their own "lobsters." Tencent hatched QClaw, Minimax introduced MaxClaw, Moonshot AI unveiled KimiClaw, and Alibaba joined the feast with CoPaw.

Experts said the emergence of these AI agents enables ordinary people without coding backgrounds to develop usable apps in a short time.

"Now, more people have access to such AI tools and actively use them to genuinely enhance labor productivity across various fields. They can accomplish tasks that were previously impossible due to insufficient individual effort or resource investment," said Liu Qingfeng, a deputy to National People's Congress, China's top legislature.

But as enthusiasm grows, security concerns are becoming increasingly prominent, experts said.

In this February, China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued a warning that some OpenClaw-powered deployments carry high security risks when in default or improper configuration, making them highly susceptible to cyberattacks, information leakage, and other security issues.