The Hindu : NPC debates private property rights

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Mar 09, 2004

International

International

NPC debates private property rights

By P. S. Suryanarayana

SINGAPORE, MARCH 8. China's National People's Congress (Parliament) today began deliberations on a draft constitutional amendment which would enshrine the `inviolability' of private property under laws that might be designed to "encourage .. the private economy''.

Proposals for amendments also on human rights, "state of emergency'' and the theory of "Three Represents'' are on the NPC's table for possible voting on March 14. Wang Zhaoguo, Vice-Chairman of the NPC's Standing Committee, briefed the delegates on the property amendment during today's session at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Diplomats and political observers in the Asia Pacific region regard the debate as a momentous development in the political evolution of the People's Republic of China.

The governing Communist Party of China had first approved the draft amendments before the NPC Standing Committee sent them to Parliament. The draft spells out that "legal private property is not to be encroached upon''. While the accent is on the legality of such property, the draft also stipulates that "the state should give compensation'' to those whose legal property might be requisitioned. On compensation, the constitutional provision is that "the state has the right to expropriate urban and rural land''. If adopted as proposed by the CPC and the NPC Standing Committee, the right to property would be extended to lawfully-obtained capital goods and "invisible goods'' such as intellectual property. Estate and bank deposits, too, may be covered. The overarching political thrust is set out in the formulation about "encouraging, supporting and guiding the private economy''.

The stipulation, itself the result of an amendment in 1988 to the Constitution that was adopted in December 1982, is that private economy can exist as a `complement' to the public economy within limits. The evolution of the concept witnessed two other major developments: the adoption of the principle of "socialist market economy'' in 1993 (the focus then being on market economy) and the stipulation in 1999 that the private sector be seen as an "essential part'' of the "socialist market economy''.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

International

News Update

Stories in this Section

Conservatives swept to power

Help resolve Haiti crisis, Annan tells Canada

NPC debates private property rights

'Karuna still holds the upper hand'

Women, a battered section of society

French scientists on the warpath

'Threat to accord'

`U.S. forces violating rights in Afghanistan'

Pakistan to testfire Shaheen-II missile

VVIP protocol for Rahul, Priyanka