China putting martyr memorials under gov't protection

China plans to put all martyr memorial facilities under government protection by 2014, a move to pay tribute to the martyrs and promote patriotism education, Minister of Civil Affairs Li Liguo announced on Thursday.

China has more than 610,000 independent graves of martyrs and 12,000 scattered memorial facilities, Li told a press conference.

The country plans to complete protection and reconstruction work on 200,000 independent graves by the end of this year, he said.

To ensure well protection of such graves, authorities will move them into county-level martyr cemeteries or build new grave yards for relocated graves.

Memorial sites and graves of martyrs will be attended to by township or village authorities if they can not be relocated properly, according to Li.

China's central finances will subsidize the project, with 5,000 yuan (793.76 U.S. dollars) to be spent on the protection and maintenance of each independent grave, and 200,000 yuan for each memorial site.

A total of 45 million yuan was allocated from the central finance for the project in 2011, and 1.9 billion yuan in 2012.

Last year, China enforced a national standard to subsidize the families of martyrs, stipulating that compensation for these families should keep pace with social and economic development.

Families of martyrs receive a sum of compensation equivalent to 50 times the per capita income of urban residents in the year before the martyr's sacrifice, plus 40 months' salary of the martyr.