Chinese lawmakers on Monday decided to submit the revised draft property law
for final approval at the parliament annual full 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 here at their annual full
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.
