Chinese lawmakers on Monday decided to submit the revised draft
property law for final approval at the parliament annual session,
saying that the draft has been "well-considered" after more than 60
revisions.
"Lawmakers have agreed that enacting the property law is
significant to uphold the basic socialist economic system, to
regulate the order of the socialist market economy and to safeguard
the immediate interests of the people," said Yang Jingyu, chairman
of the Law Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), when
briefing deputies on the revisions.
The draft property law, which grants equal protection to state
and private property, has been deliberated by nearly 3,000
lawmakers at the NPC annual session that began a week ago.
Members of China's top advisory body who gather in Beijing at
their annual session running almost parallel to the NPC session
also hold discussions over the draft law and made suggestions for
further revisions.
"The Law Committee has made more than 60 revisions to the draft
property law in accordance with the opinions of NPC deputies," said
Yang at a meeting of the presidium, which decided by vote to submit
it to the plenary meeting for approval.
The revisions range from relations between this law and the
Guarantee Law to protection of the legitimate rights of members of
a collective from being infringed upon by the decision made in the
name of the collective or its leaders, according to Yang.
NPC deputy Xu Xianming, also president of the China University
of Political Science and Law, said the Chinese-style socialist
property system is decided by the country's basic economic
structure, and a property law with distinct Chinese characteristics
should thoroughly and accurately embodies the basic socialist
economic system.
"The draft property law is in line with the Constitution and
reflects an equal status and a just environment for fair
competition among state-owned, collective and private enterprises,"
said Lu Baifu, a research fellow with the Development Research
Center of the State Council, or Chinese cabinet, and a member of
the NPC Finance and Economy Committee.
To most law experts of the country, the draft property law
strengthens the protection of state-owned property, stipulating
that illegal possession, looting, illegal sharing, withholding or
destruction of state property is prohibited, to further prevent
fraudulent acquisitions and mergers of state property.
Those who cause loss of state property shall bear legal
liability, according to the draft property law.
As part of the draft civil code, the draft property law was
submitted to the NPC Standing Committee for the first review in
2002 after nearly 10 years of preparations.
After an unprecedented seven times of reading, the NPC Standing
Committee decided last December to put it for voting at the Fifth
Session of the Tenth NPC, believing that the draft "represented a
crystallization of the wisdom of the collective and was about to be
mature".
The market economy requires that all subjects of the market
enjoy the same rights, observe the same rules and bear the same
responsibilities, said Wang Jiafu, a civil law expert with the
Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
"If different subjects of the market are not provided with equal
protection, it will not be possible to develop the socialist market
economy, nor will it be possible to uphold and improve the basic
economic system of socialism," said Wang.
The draft property law is expected to be voted on by lawmakers
on Friday, when the NPC session concludes.
(Xinhua News Agency March 13, 2007)