Policy & Institutional FrameworkThree-Tier Support and Resource Constraints

11.1 The UNESCO heritage tourism multiplier

Tourism data following the successful inscription of Quanzhou on 25 July 2021:

During the October 2022 national holiday, visitor numbers surged +178.6% year-on-year—nearly triple. This peak reflects the short-term compounding of the UNESCO effect with the holiday effect, but even stripped of seasonal fluctuation, the annual growth is substantial.

1 January 2024—the Quanzhou Municipal Regulations on the Protection and Management of “Quanzhou: Emporium of the World in Song-Yuan China” Cultural Heritage took effect. This is a dedicated local statute providing a legal framework for the protection of the 22 heritage sites, including the Dehua kiln sites. Annual conservation funding: ¥1 million.

For the protection needs of 22 heritage sites, this figure is modest. But the significance of the regulations lies in establishing the legal framework and an institutional appropriation mechanism; the funding level can be incrementally raised from this base.

11.2 The intellectual property system

The density of Dehua’s institutional infrastructure for intellectual property protection is exceptionally rare at the county level nationwide:

Copyright protection—China’s Copyright Law has covered ceramic sculpture since 1994. Original works of Dehua white porcelain (especially master craftsmen’s sculptures) enjoy copyright protection. WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) headquarters has exhibited Dehua white porcelain—visibility on the highest international platform in the IP domain.

Geographical indication protection—“Dehua White Porcelain” received national geographical indication product protection in 2006. It was subsequently included in the inaugural China–EU mutual-recognition GI list and the inaugural China–Thailand mutual-recognition list—in both EU and Thai markets, “Dehua White Porcelain” as a designation of origin is legally protected.

EUIPO registration—in March 2025, “BLANC DE CHINE” was registered as a trademark at the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO). This is a milestone: in the EU market, the French term “Blanc de Chine,” in use for 163 years, now has legal protection—selling non-Dehua white porcelain under the “Blanc de Chine” name entails the legal risk of trademark infringement.

OEPM registration—completed at Spain’s Patent and Trademark Office in late 2024.

IP fast-track centre—approved in November 2024 and now operational. The centre’s function is to accelerate the resolution of IP disputes—in the e-commerce era, infringing copies spread in hours while traditional IP litigation operates on a timeline measured in months or years. This speed mismatch is the core bottleneck in IP protection, and the fast-track centre targets precisely this gap.

11.3 Provincial ten measures

Fujian MIIT Regulation [2022] No. 14—ten support measures for the Dehua ceramics industry, jointly issued by seven departments of the Fujian Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology. A joint directive from seven provincial-level departments—this administrative tier and inter-departmental coordination strength is uncommon among county-level industrial policies nationwide.

11.4 Quanzhou seven measures

In December 2022, Quanzhou Municipality issued seven support measures. Among them, the overseas-warehouse subsidy policy directly addresses the logistics cost pressure on Dehua’s export enterprises—overseas warehouses can shorten cross-border e-commerce delivery from 15–30 days to 3–7 days, but the upfront investment and operating costs are high. The government subsidy reduces enterprises’ cost of experimentation.

11.5 County-level new ten measures

Issued in 2025. Key highlights:

¥5 billion credit support—a dedicated credit facility addressing the longstanding financing difficulties of small and medium enterprises.

Master Craftsman Loans and Talent Loans—two innovative financial products worth noting. “Master Craftsman Loans” extend credit based on the personal brand and inventory of national- or provincial-level master craftsmen; “Talent Loans” target recruited high-level talent. This represents an attempt to incorporate human capital and intangible assets into the credit evaluation system—under traditional bank assessment frameworks, a ceramic master’s personal brand value is difficult to quantify as loanable collateral, and the “Master Craftsman Loan” product circumvents this obstacle by design.

11.6 Five-year action plan—the 3-2-1 framework

The core framework of Dehua’s ceramics industry five-year action plan can be summarised as “3-2-1”:

3 segments—design & R&D, manufacturing, marketing & distribution. Covering the entire value chain.

2 tracks—traditional industry upgrading + high-tech ceramics cultivation. A dual-track approach.

1 target—one hundred billion (yuan). By 2027.

The 3-2-1 logic is clear and pragmatic: from a base of ¥76 billion, achieve an additional 31.6% growth through systematic optimisation across three segments, extending the existing industrial trajectory.

11.7 Premium Goods Going Global

“Premium Goods Going Global” (优品出海) is Dehua’s most systematic international-expansion initiative in recent years:

Organisational structure—25 departments, 6 working groups. This coordination strength is exceptionally rare at the county level—25 departments acting in concert means that internationalisation has expanded from a single commercial bureau function to a collective whole-of-county institutional effort.

Overseas showrooms—65, covering major export markets.

Overseas warehouses—8.

Touring exhibitions—launched in August 2023, with stops in Frankfurt, Delft, Copenhagen, Kyoto, New York, Chicago, Puebla (Mexico), and Semarang (Indonesia). Five-year target: 26 countries.

The choice of exhibition cities reflects strategic considerations:

11.8 Global Ceramics Supply Chain Management Centre

Established in May 2025. The institution is positioned to upgrade Dehua from a “production base” to a “supply-chain hub”—not merely producing porcelain, but managing the entire chain from raw materials to finished goods to logistics to after-sales.

11.9 Customs clearance and infrastructure

Customs clearance times reduced by over 40%. For an industry where exports account for 60% of output, every day shaved off clearance means tens of thousands of containers boarding ships one day earlier. A 40%+ compression in processing time has a direct impact on enterprises’ cash-flow turnover efficiency.

11.10 Talent—the most pressing constraint

3,066 recruited, 986 retained.

986—an entire county retained just 986 university graduates in a single year. An industrial cluster with over 100,000 workers, receiving fewer than 1,000 new entrants with higher education annually.

Of all statistical indicators covered in this report, this one carries the most significant structural risk.

Dehua sits in the mountainous interior of central Fujian, approximately 100 km from the nearest prefecture-level city Quanzhou and 200 km from Xiamen. Competing for young talent against first-tier and strong second-tier cities, its geographic location and urban amenities are inherent disadvantages. The average age of the 13 national-level master craftsmen is rising—if young people do not come, the craft transmission chain will fracture within a single generation.

The ageing pressure is already visible in current recruitment data, not a distant projection.