The recent efforts by China to recover cultural relics looted from the Old Summer Palace （Yuanmingyuan） by western forces have drawn widespread public attention. From the perspective of international law，only the Chinese government has the right to institute legal proceedings for the recovery of Chinese royal cultural relics from overseas. However，the best way to recover Chinese royal cultural relics lost overseas is not to institute civil proceedings at foreign courts，but to adopt a combination of diplomatic and legal approaches in light of the concrete situation of specific cases.