The addition of ‘Quanzhou: Emporium of the World in Song-Yuan China’ to the world’s top cultural organisation strengthens Chinese President Xi Jinping’s maritime silk road, a sea route that is part of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which aims to connect China with Asia and beyond through land and sea infrastructure projects.
China has promoted the coastal province of Fujian and the city of Quanzhou as an important ancient sea trade zone where multicultural communities from all over the world mingled millennia ago, including those from Tamil Nadu. Between 1999 and 2002, Xi was the governor of Fujian, and he also paid a visit to Quanzhou.
The decision was made on Sunday during the 44th online session of the surprisingly, China’s application to Unesco for heritage status for Quanzhou and did not specifically mention the city’s ancient links with Tamil Nadu, instead mentioning only Hinduism. Unesco World Heritage Committee, which was chaired from Fuzhou, the capital of Fujian, the same province as Quanzhou.
Because of Quanzhou’s ancient links with Tamil Nadu, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi decided to establish ‘sister-state relations’ between Tamil Nadu and Fujian during the latter’s visit to Mamallapuram for the second informal summit in October, 2019.
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