December 23, 2017, LUO Shu Gang, Minister of Culture, was commissioned by the State Council to report on China’s cultural heritage protection at the 31st meeting of the National People's Congress. The report focused on three aspects: the overall achievements, the current situation and the future direction, and systematically introduced the overall status of China’s cultural heritage protection whilst pointing out the direction for future work. It is worth mentioning that on the subject of major cultural heritage achievements, close cooperation with international organisations was noted as a key contributor. The establishment of the ‘World Heritage Institute of Training and Research for the Asia and the Pacific Region’ (WHITRAP) by UNESCO was of particular interest.

The report marked the “continuous deepening of cultural heritage exchanges and collaborations with foreign countries and Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan” as a focus of future work, and demonstrated further promotion of “in depth cooperation with relevant international organisations and active participation in the protection of international cultural heritage”. This depicts China’s increasing attention towards the international exchange of cultural heritage, and the increased opportunities and platforms it provides for the future development of WHITRAP.