China says it will be a “museum power” by 2035

CHINA HAS big plans for the year 2035, if somewhat lacking in clarity. It will “basically achieve socialist modernisation” by then, whatever that means. Its army will be modernised, too. Late in 2020 it also said it would become a cultural and sporting power (isn’t it both already?), and an “education power” to boot. Last month it declared a new goal: to become a “museum power”. It even gave some detail. Between ten and 15 of its museums, it said, would become “world-class”.

China is building museums at a frenetic pace. In 2000 it had fewer than 1,200 of them. By the end of last year there were nearly five times as many. Helped by a decision in 2008 to allow free entry to most government-run ones, visits have also soared. By the end of 2019 the annual number had increased more than fourfold, to 1.2bn. There was a huge drop last year because of the pandemic, but new museums still opened at a rate of nearly five a week (officials admit that obtaining enough good stuff to put in them is difficult).