The Committee,

1. Having examined document LHE/23/18.COM/7.a,
2. Recalling Chapter V of the Operational Directives and its Decisions COM 5.2, 12.COM 8.c.6 and 16.COM 7.a.12,
3. Expresses its appreciation to China for submitting, on time, its third report on the status of the element ‘Watertight-bulkhead technology of Chinese junks’, inscribed in 2010 on the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding;
4. Takes note of the efforts undertaken by the State Party to safeguard the element, in particular by sustaining master-apprentice transmission, involving educational institutions in safeguarding the element, developing digital tools for its promotion, advancing research, and creating synergies with private funding, encouraging new product development related to the element, thereby generating income for its bearers and practitioners, including women;
5. Encourages the State Party to pursue its efforts to transmit the element to younger generations through education, experiential learning and training, to promote the element and ensure digital accessibility for its documentation, to strengthen research and interaction among various stakeholders, including shipyards, and to ensure bearers and communities’ continuous participation in implementing and developing safeguarding measures;
6. Further encourages the State Party to support the exploration of new functions for producing traditional wooden junks and to diversify the development of new related products, while balancing market demand and the safeguarding of traditional practice and ensuring that relevant communities remain the primary beneficiaries;
7. Invites the State Party to pay special attention to safeguarding the cultural meanings of the element, along with the customs and rituals during the construction of traditional wooden junks;
8. Further invites the State Party to pay due attention both to raising awareness about and promoting the element and to transmitting the related knowledge and skills, and also encourages it to address the lack of insurance for bearers, apprentices and practitioners, as raised in the nomination file and in the previous report;
9. Requests that the Secretariat inform the State Party at least nine months prior to the next deadline about the required submission of its next report on the status of this element.