Buried gold surely belongs to the State

A 7.85-kilogram chunk of gold found by a herdsman in Qinghe county, Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, last week has sparked heated discussions across the country over its ownership. Going by the Property Law, the gold surely belongs to the State because it is an "ownerless property" found within China's border.

In general, there are two kinds of property law featuring nationalism and individualism respectively--the former is adopted by China. Under such a definition, there are three kinds of properties in the country: State owned, collectively and personally owned, with State-owned property getting absolute State protection and personal property receiving relative protection. Besides, State ownership takes precedence in matters of controversial ownership, meaning the State has the right of ownership of unidentified properties

The Property Law offers a broad definition of the ownership of State-owned property.