Monday, March 08, 2004
The People's Republic of China will give constitutional protection to private property
I'm certainly no expert on China and have no idea how long this has been in the works, but I can't help but wonder whether this specific change in China's constitution will one day be recognized as the end of de jure communism in the world's most populist country:
China's parliament yesterday offered a preview of the constitutional revisions that are expected to be passed on Sunday, indicating sweeping changes in private property protection and human rights.
Mr Wang Zhaoguo, vice-chairman of the National People's Congress, told almost 3,000 delegates at the Great Hall of the People that socialist China will give equal status to both private and public property, in an amendment to make both 'inviolable' by law.
The protection extends to privately owned means of production - private businesses, in simple terms - as well as private property, he said.
I first visited China twenty years ago this May. In Beijing, there was only one truly "Western" hotel, the people wore virtually nothing other than Mao suits, and white people were unusual enough on Tienanmen Square that the locals would gawk at us. Now, private property and businesses are specifically protected in the constitution of the world's last major "communist" regime. The law will even provide for the inheritance of property! It is unbelievable that such dramatic change should occur in such a brutal country in such short a time, with so very few casualties (and, yes, I remember the symbolic meaning of Tienanmen Square).
China still has its share of problems. It is not free in its politics, its national government may yet have a crisis of legitimacy that could shake the world, its development is not helping the environment of central and eastern Asia, and it will probably become a serious rival to American interests over the long term. Nevertheless, its recent material and political progress is one of the great blessings of the last twenty-five years.
China's parliament yesterday offered a preview of the constitutional revisions that are expected to be passed on Sunday, indicating sweeping changes in private property protection and human rights.
Mr Wang Zhaoguo, vice-chairman of the National People's Congress, told almost 3,000 delegates at the Great Hall of the People that socialist China will give equal status to both private and public property, in an amendment to make both 'inviolable' by law.
The protection extends to privately owned means of production - private businesses, in simple terms - as well as private property, he said.
I first visited China twenty years ago this May. In Beijing, there was only one truly "Western" hotel, the people wore virtually nothing other than Mao suits, and white people were unusual enough on Tienanmen Square that the locals would gawk at us. Now, private property and businesses are specifically protected in the constitution of the world's last major "communist" regime. The law will even provide for the inheritance of property! It is unbelievable that such dramatic change should occur in such a brutal country in such short a time, with so very few casualties (and, yes, I remember the symbolic meaning of Tienanmen Square).
China still has its share of problems. It is not free in its politics, its national government may yet have a crisis of legitimacy that could shake the world, its development is not helping the environment of central and eastern Asia, and it will probably become a serious rival to American interests over the long term. Nevertheless, its recent material and political progress is one of the great blessings of the last twenty-five years.
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