On the 16th (local time), ahead of the scheduled meeting between Trump and Xi, the Chinese Embassy in the United States held a handover ceremony for the repatriation of cultural artifacts. China received 58 items—including cultural relics, artworks, and paleontological fossils—returned by the Cultural Property, Art, and Antiquities Program of U.S. Homeland Security Investigations. Chinese Ambassador to the U.S. Xie Feng stated that this move implements the consensus reached during the Trump-Xi meeting in Beijing and demonstrates that U.S.-China cooperation can yield significant results.
Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to visit the United States next week to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump. In the lead-up to this summit, the U.S. return of these 58 artifacts and fossils helps set a positive tone for the meeting between the two heads of state.
According to the website of the Chinese Embassy in the United States, Xie Feng stated that the repatriation of these cultural artifacts is a tangible outcome of the two sides implementing the consensus reached by the heads of state during their meeting in Beijing and putting into practice the new positioning of a constructive and strategically stable relationship. He noted that this move reflects a sense of historical responsibility on both sides, sets a positive example for other nations, and once again demonstrates that China-US cooperation can accomplish significant, practical, and beneficial results.
Rao Quan, Vice Minister of Culture and Tourism and Director of the National Cultural Heritage Administration, and Ricardo Mayoral, Assistant Director of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), delivered remarks and signed the handover certificate.
