China's legislature approves law to protect private property

BEIJING (AP) - China's legislature passed a milestone property law today strengthening protection for private businesses and property.

The property law was passed with a vote of 2,799 delegates in favour, 52 opposed and 37 abstaining on the final day of the annual two-week session of the National People's Congress.

The property law had been strongly opposed by a small but highly influential group of scholars and retired communist officials, who said the law is a threat to the state's guiding role and a vehicle for unrestrained privatization that will feed a growing income gap between rich and poor.

Such opposition and the Chinese leadership's ambivalence about reducing the primacy of state property caused the law to be kicked around for 14 years before a final version was submitted this year.

The property law intends to offer the same protection for private and public property, a recognition of the private sector's rise since the start of economic changes in the late 1970s. The private sector, including foreign investment, has grown to account for 65 per cent of gross national product and up to 70 per cent of tax revenues.

State industries, meanwhile, have shed influence along with employees, with China's labour minister saying earlier this week jobs need to be found this year for another five million laid-off state enterprise workers.

Along with private businesses, the law also aims to bolster the rights of house buyers who have pushed the urban home ownership rate to more than 80 per cent, as well as farmers who have frequently lost land to infrastructure and housing projects, with little or no compensation.

© The Canadian Press, 2007