Members of China's private sector are calling for legislation to
support the rights of individual property owners.
Chinese private economy's voice Jing Shuping Wednesday called for
legislation supporting property rights, although private ownership
has for decades been regarded as the root of evil.
Proposed amendments to the country's Constitution will protect
individuals against unreasonable seizures of their property, said
Jing, chairman of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce
(ACFIC).
The ACFIC, which is also called the China Non-Governmental Chamber
of Commerce, represents the country's 27 million private business
owners.
Apparently encouraged by the latest calls for a greater
representation of private business people from Jiang Zemin, general
secretary of the Chinese Communist Party's Central Committee, Jing
said the legislation should ensure that the right is sacred and
inviolable, the same language used in the Constitution to describe
State assets.
Jing, also vice-chairman of the National Council of the Chinese
People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), told China
Daily he would make the proposal to the CPPCC.
Jing noted the lack of legal protection and fears that people would
be deprived of their property. This anxiety among private business
owners was resulting in slackening individual investment and the
flight of capital abroad, he said.
No
authority or administration shall deprive any person of possessions
without due process of law once the right to property is firmly
embedded in the Constitution, Jing said.
Jing's appeal is coupled with similar calls from scholars and
experts.
Jing said there was unfairness in that people prosecuted for
embezzling State funds would be dealt with much more severely than
similar cases involving private property.
Jing pointed out that the latest policy revisions meant the
situation for private investment was improving. Now, all sectors
that permit foreign investment are also open to private investment,
although restrictions remain in some sectors such as the defence
industry.
He
said he was aware of lingering problems. In the telecommunications
sector, private capital cannot hold more than 49 per cent of the
stock of a specific business.
The discriminative rules mean private investment cannot control a
telecommunication enterprise, Jing said.
The sectors that now permit private capital include road and sea
port construction, manufacturing of aircraft parts and
long-distance natural gas pipelines, such as the planned pipeline
from the northwestern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region to
Shanghai.
With China set to enter the World Trade Organization at the
beginning of next year, Jing said the deregulation of industries
would accelerate.
(China Daily 07/19/2001)