This is unfortunately true. They have yet to quite grasp the importance of preserving their country’s tangible history, which is amazing considering how proud the average Chinese person is of their history. The average person also seems to actually know more about their ancient history than the average American would know about ours.
But the archaeology thing is still in shambles there. I happen to know that around where I lived, 2000-year-old graves and their contents are purposely destroyed by construction workers because unfortunately the legal situation surrounding the discovery of such a thing is less than economically favorable. Basically, if they report that they’ve found it, they lose any hope of being able to use the land or continue their building project because the government can take control of that property for archaeological reasons-—permanently. It isn’t like here where archaeological digs are carried out and then the land is returned to the developers. It’s all up to the government there, and the construction guys do not want to face the loss.
There are other archaeological horror stories in China, but truth be told, I’m not sure they’re much worse than the stories of archaeological destruction carried out by the early colonists of this country. I don’t really blame people for putting the present ahead of the past, but someday their children or grandchildren will wish it could have been done differently.