Governing China
统治中国

Caught between right and left, town and country
如何在城市与乡村，激进派和保守派中取得平衡？
Mar 8th 2007 | BEIJING
From The Economist print edition

A new law on property rights defines the ideological struggle at the heart of China's economic reform
在中国的经济改革进入关键时刻，新近出台的物权法引发了关于意识形态方面的争议



FOUR years of double-digit growth, soaring government revenues, low inflation and a manageable budget deficit might be cause for celebration in other countries. But China's leaders are anxious. Inequalities are growing, corruption is rampant, grumbling widespread. Ideological battles between free-marketeers and left-wingers threaten to impede reform.
连续4年两位数字的增长率，激增的政府财政收入，较低的通货膨胀率和可掌控的财政预算的赤字，如果这些发生在其他国家，应该是值得庆祝的事情了。但对于中国的领导人来说，却有着自己的担忧。贫富差距的不断拉大，官员的腐败横行，民间怨声载道，在鼓吹市场自由化的改革派和持反对意见的左翼保守派之间，一场关于意识形态的争论正在兴起，而这很可能阻碍改革的进一步推动。

In his annual address at the opening of China's parliament, the National People's Congress (NPC) on March 5th, the prime minister, Wen Jiabao, studiously avoided mention of the most controversial item on the 12-day meeting's agenda. It is a new law on property rights which is mainly intended to reassure the country's fast growing middle class that their assets are secure. Three years ago China added a clause to its constitution saying that private property was “not to be encroached upon”. But efforts to translate this into law have aroused unusually fierce and open debate about the direction of China's economic reforms. Chinese leaders are now struggling to silence it.
在3月5日开幕的的人大年会上，温家宝总理在这为期12天的会议中，一直谨慎地回避着一些敏感的话题。一部新法——物权法将要出台，目的在于保护新兴的中产阶级财产。三年前，中国在宪法中增加了一条私人财产“不受侵犯”。将这一条变成一部专门的法律方面却引起了不寻常的激烈的公开辩论。这关系到中国改革的走向，官方领导人却想平息这样的争论。

The debate has raised embarrassing questions about whose side Mr Wen and President Hu Jintao are really on. Do they support China's left wing, which fears the country is turning too capitalist, or the right, which sees market forces as a sometimes painful but necessary cure to developmental problems? Since Mr Hu took over as Communist Party chief in 2002, and Mr Wen as prime minister the following year, the two men have shifted official rhetoric and policy to the left and have boosted central-government support for the poor and marginalised. Last month the official media published a speech by Mr Wen on the need for “social justice”—a term dear to the left which believes that the poor are being trampled upon.
因为这场讨论将使得胡锦涛和温家宝不得不表态，究竟是支持左派的观点，担心国家会变得资本主义化，还是右派的观点，认为这是改革进程中不可避免的问题？自从胡2002年担任党的总书记，03年温担任总理以来，两人将官方论调和政策转而倾斜于对穷人和弱势群体的关注。上个月，官方媒体发表了一篇温家宝的讲话，其中提到了“社会公正”——这在左派看来，就是指“贫困阶层的利益受到了侵害”。

As the party prepares to hold its five-yearly congress this autumn, the first to be presided over by Mr Hu and a crucial test of his authority, the leadership's record is coming under closer scrutiny. The NPC session is focusing attention on how much has really been done for the poor under Mr Wen's premiership. Mr Wen's five-year term of office ends next year. He is all but certain to be reappointed for another term (he and Mr Hu appear to get on well), but he will want to mark the occasion by pointing out what he has achieved.
在即将到来的5年一次的党代会上，胡执政5年来的成绩将被评估，这对他未来巩固政权来说至关重要。人代会关注重点在于，温领导下的政府到底为穷人做了多少实事。温为期5年的任期将在明年届满。一般认为，他的连任看来是没有什么问题。（他和胡的关系看来是很好）但他也要在会议间向代表们证明自己不是碌碌无为。

Not nearly enough say those on the left. Direct criticism of leaders is still virtually taboo in China. But the drafting of the property law has provided an outlet for critics of government policy to air their grievances. Mr Hu and Mr Wen do not appear to face concerted opposition among party officials. But a vocal body of intellectuals and retired officials has denounced the property law as a betrayal of the country's socialist principles. It will, they say, protect the fortunes of corrupt officials and the ill-gotten gains of crooked businessmen. Further, it will hasten the demise of China's remaining state-owned industries and the creation of a plutocracy.
在当今的中国，对国家领导人的直接批评还是一个禁区。左派的意见还没有得到充分表达。而新近起草的物权法给他们提供了一个批评政府的机会。胡温在党内好象没有遇到什么反对的声音，但在某些知识分子和退休的官员看来，物权法是对社会主义的背叛。他们认为，这将会保护腐败官员和奸商的非法所得，损害国有企业的利益，滋生出一个新的权富阶层。

The leadership has been put on the defensive. Although it is often ready to lash out at critics on the right, it is usually more cautious in handling the left (China is still, after all, officially socialist). In this case, the left's criticisms have been particularly difficult to suppress because the leadership itself invited discussion by publishing a draft of the law in 2005—a very unusual move in a country that normally keeps its legislative processes shrouded in secrecy.
领导层的回应也很谨慎，特别是在对付左派的言论上（中国不管怎么说，表面上还是一个社会主义国家）。如此来说，左派的言论很难反驳。原因是领导层本身在2005年发起了对物权法草案的辩论——这在中国也是不同寻常的举动。一般立法的过程都是暗箱操作。

A law professor at Peking University, Gong Xiantian, took advantage of this to write an open letter calling the proposed bill unconstitutional. His criticism was widely reported in the Chinese media and fuelled an acrimonious debate on Chinese websites. Officials revised the law and planned to have it adopted at last year's NPC meeting. But the controversy continued to rage and they were obliged to pull it from the agenda.
北大的一名法学教授巩献田公开上书，将此物权法的提案说成是违宪。中国媒体对他的言论进行了广泛的报道，在国内的互联网上也引起了广泛而激烈的讨论。官方随后对法案进行了修改，原计划在去年的人大会议上通过，但由于争论太大，最终没有提交会议进行表决。

Since then, three more drafts have been circulated among senior legislators, the latest in December. The leadership retreated into secretive mode. Copies were not made public until after the NPC session began. Mr Gong says officials have made it clear in recent weeks that they want the law passed at this year's NPC session. Newspapers have been ordered to play the issue down. Mr Gong says he has had no choice but to turn to the foreign media in order to get his views across. Han Deqiang, another Beijing academic and critic of the bill, says officials told him to remove an online petition he had organised opposing the legislation.
此后又经过三次的修改，最近的一次是在去年12月。官方将讨论的过程不公开化。在人代会开幕前修改后的草案一直没有被公开。巩先生说，官方已经明确地表示他们将在近期的会议上，强行通过该项法案。他现在别无选择，只有将他的观点向外国媒体披露，以求得到支持。另一名对法案有异议的北京学者韩德强说，他已经接到官方的通知，让他在网上撤除针对此项法案的线请愿活动。

But an NPC spokesman said consensus about the law had emerged and it was wrong to call it unconstitutional. Its passage on March 16th, the closing day of the NPC, is now all but secure. Opinion polls of delegates—who owe their positions to party patronage—are never published. Dissenting votes have become increasingly common in recent years. But it would be unprecedented for delegates to reject a bill.
但人大的发言人说，舆论已对此项法案已经形成了达成共识，说它“违宪“是错误的。预计法案将在人大会结束前，也就是3月16日表决，通过看来是没有问题的。代表们（根据他们在党内的地位而取得的代表权）的民测验一直没有被公开。在近年来的投票中，反对票的增加也变得司空见惯。但如果真的被否决的可能性也不大发生。

For all its pro-left rhetoric—Mr Wen's speech to the NPC was suffused with it—the leadership realises that it also has to keep on side a growing urban middle class whose tolerance of party rule is particularly vital to its grip on power. On this, Mr Hu and Mr Wen are of one mind with their predecessors, Jiang Zemin and Deng Xiaoping. It was Mr Deng who decided in the early 1990s that only rapid growth, fuelled by the unfettering of the private sector, could save China from the fate of the Soviet block. In the final years of his presidency, Mr Jiang invested enormous political capital in promoting the abolition of the party's ban on recruiting private entrepreneurs. In 2002, when he stepped down as party general-secretary in favour of Mr Hu, Mr Jiang secured—despite strong complaints from the left—a revision to the party's charter that, in effect, legitimised his welcoming of capitalists.
虽然温在两会上的讲话充满对弱势群体的关怀，但领导层当然也意识到城市日益崛起的中产阶级对他们政权的稳固十分重要。在这一点上，胡温和他们的前任，江泽民和邓小平观点是一致的。正是邓小平在1990年代初期大力发展民营经济，加速经济的发展，以使中国避免前苏联亡党亡国的结局。他后一个5年任期中，江泽民致力于推动允许私营企业家加入共产党的提案。2002年在他将总书记的位子交给胡锦涛之前，江抵住左派反对之声，对党章的修改，使得资本家入党变得合法。

The more left-leaning approach of Mr Hu and Mr Wen has often been portrayed as evidence of a policy rift between them and Mr Jiang, who remained influential in Chinese politics until he stepped down from his last position as the party's military chief in 2004. But their efforts to please the property-owning middle class suggest they have a lot in common. The constitutional revision three years ago and recent attempts to silence opposition to the proposed property law have been central to these efforts.
而胡温的上台后，他们更倾向于对弱势群体的关注，这与江形成了一定的对比。江在2004年交出军委主席的位置之后，在中国的政坛还有相当的影响力。但在对物权法的立场上，也就是为了维护中产阶级的利益方面，他们有着相同的观点。例如3年前对宪法的修正和近期对反对物权法的声音的压制就能证明了这一点。

Neglecting the middle class would be even more perilous for the current Chinese leadership than it was perceived to be by Mr Jiang and Mr Deng. Sweeping privatisation of housing since the late 1990s has radically changed the social and political fabric of urban China. Property rights have become a topic of critical interest to urban residents anxious to protect their new assets from the whims of the state.
对胡温来说，中产阶级的支持尤为重要。1990年代后期，在城市中的住房的私有化狂潮改变了中国社会政治的结构。房屋的所有权成为城市居民关心的焦点问题，他们也怕新购买的房屋会被随着国家政策的改变而有所损失，物权法的出台就显得尤为重要。



They are also of vital interest to private businesses, which have continued to grow rapidly in number and scale under Mr Hu and Mr Wen. Official figures show investment by the private sector in fixed assets such as factory buildings and machinery grew nearly threefold between 2000 and 2005 (see chart). As a proportion of total fixed-assets investment the figures suggest little change (14% to 16%). But if investments by collective enterprises (many of which are private) are included in the private share, it has risen from 42% to 60%.
对日趋兴旺的私营经济来说，物权法也是致关重要的。官方统计，在2000年到2005年之间，私营经济对固定资产（例如厂房和机器）投入增长了3倍，在总的固定资产投资所占的比例好象是没有什么变化，但如果加上集体经济（其中的一些也是私营的）的份额，比例将提到到42%-46%。

Farmers, too, are finding property rights of rapidly growing interest (and their concerns matter more to the left). The large-scale appropriation of farmland in recent years for housing and factory construction has rendered millions of farmers landless. Many have been given little or no compensation. In the countryside and in the cities, property and land disputes have become a leading cause of social unrest. A senior official said in January that the number of “mass incidents” in China had fallen to about 23,000 last year from 26,000 in 2005. But such figures are ill-defined and subject to political distortion. Since 2004 leaders have vowed to build a “harmonious society”, making it risky for low-level governments to report data suggesting that unrest is growing.
农民对物权法也日趋关注。（左派的观点代表他们的立场）近年来，为了新建的房地产和厂房而进行的大规模征地，使得数百万的农民丧失了土地。很多人得到很少的补偿，有的甚至一无所得。今年一月份，一位高级官员说“大规模的抗争”事件有23，000起，比2005年的26，000有所下降。但此数字令人怀疑。原因是自从2004年官方提出建立“和谐社会”的口号后，地方政府为了自身利益，尽量少报不和谐的声音。

The proposed law's provisions (to judge from the draft released on March 8th) range from general statements of principle to specific clarifications of certain grey areas. These include, for instance, the ownership of parking spaces around high-rise flats: the draft says that the spaces belong to the flats' owners, not the developers. China's fast-growing cohort of car-owners will be pleased with that.
提交审议的法案条文（根据3月8日披露的最新草案）范围包括从一般的立法通则到具体的条例，其中包括对灰色空白地带的解释。例如，高层建筑的停车场归属权：草案认为停车场的产权属于公寓的业主，而不是开发商。中国日益激增的有车一族听到这个消息，当然会感到欣慰。

Many of the law's provisions are contained in other regulations issued in recent years. But supporters of the bill say that combining these elements into one law enacted by the country's top legislature would give them additional weight. Yin Tian of Peking University says the law will be a mark of the government's respect for private property and could help to reinforce social stability by reducing disputes. The draft tries to streamline the registration of property sales and make it easier for interested parties to check details. The difficulty buyers have in getting such information results in frequent ownership wrangles after deals are completed.
草案中的许多条款和近年来颁布的其他一些法规有所重叠。但法案的支持者认为，将这些内容放在单一的法案，并由国家的最高立法机构批准通过，将使得这些内容更具有权威性。北京大学的尹田认为，该法案可以看作是政府尊重私人财产的一个标志，有利于增强社会的稳定性，以减少不必要的纠纷。此法案试图使得产权的登记更加合理化，有利于购买方核查产权。如果购买方很难得到相关的信息的话，就会在交易结束的时候才发现产权的归属并不清楚，从而引发纠纷。

Farmers, whose main concern relates to land-ownership rights, would also have something to gain. The good news is that the latest draft, unlike the 2005 version, gives farmers the right to renew their land-use leases after they expire. Unlike urban land, which is state-owned with usage rights granted for periods of between 40 and 70 years, rural land is “collectively” owned. Farmers are given 30-year leases (though often no supporting documents) to use plots of land. But the law will put no new limits on the government's powers to appropriate land. It also says that village committees represent the collective. These are supposedly democratically elected but party regulations still give unelected party chiefs the final say over village affairs. Most important, the ban on mortgaging farmland will remain.
农民同样也有所收获，他们关心的是和土地相关的权力。不同于2005年的版本，最近公布的草案给了农民在土地到期后可以续租的权利，对农民来说，这应该是一个好消息。城市的土地产权归政府所有，业主只有40——70年不等的使用权，而农村土地的使用权归集体所有。根据不成文的规定，农民一般拥有30年的土地耕种的权利。但最新的法案对政府对土地的征收没有什么新的限制，也有说法是村委会代表着“集体”。党任命的支书仍然是实际的掌权人，虽然这并没有通过选举而产生。更重要的一点是，农民的土地不能抵押贷款。

Again according to the draft, a person would be considered the owner of real estate if his ownership was registered with the government, or of movable property if he was in possession of it. Ownership could be challenged, but critics worry that it would be difficult to do so for former state-owned assets or for land-use rights that had been sold off in shady deals. The timing of the earlier draft's publication in 2005 was bad for the bill's supporters. It followed an upsurge of debate about the frequent sale of state-owned enterprises at rock-bottom prices to their managers. In response, the government banned management buy-outs of large state enterprises. But there was also concern about its sales of strategic stakes in state-owned banks to foreign investors.
根据法案，如果在政府登记房屋的产权，或登记流动财产，那他就拥有该物品的所有权。产权也可以被质疑。但批评者却认为，如果国有企业或土地被贱卖的话，很难找到相关的证据来揭发。2005年议案的提出时机也非常糟糕。当时正是大量的国有企业以极低价格被企业的管理者购买，在社会上引起极大的争议。政府随后禁止了大型国有企业的管理层收购。与此同时，海外战略投资者对国有银行的参股也引起有关贱卖的类似评论。

The left was irritated in 2005 and remains so. A recent petition to the NPC by influential left-wingers says privatisation is accelerating and causing a widening gap between rich and poor. It says the sale of state assets to corrupt officials, the super rich and foreign multinationals is illegal and unconstitutional. Among the more than 3,200 signatories are seven former government ministers or deputy ministers, five former provincial leaders, a sprinkling of retired senior military officers and about 50 professors at the party's Central School, an academy for top officials.
保守派自从2005年物权法提出以来，一直没有停止抗议之声，最近一项由人大的左翼人士发起的请愿书中认为，私有化是导致和加速贫富差距的根源，国有资产贱卖给腐败官员，超级富豪和国外跨国公司的行为不仅是违法，而且是违宪。在3200多名联署的签名中，包括了7名前部长和副部长，5名前省长，一群退休的军方高级将领和大约50名中央党校的教授。

The government has tried to assuage the left by stressing the limits of reform. In December it announced that state-owned enterprises under the central government would remain in control of industrial sectors considered crucial to national security and economic welfare: military equipment, electric power, oil and petrochemicals, telecommunications, coal, aviation and shipping. But the number of centrally owned state enterprises would continue to decline from 161 at the end of last year to between 80 and 100 in 2010. Among these, the government hopes that 30-50 internationally competitive conglomerates will emerge. State-owned enterprises with no hope of turning a profit will “exit the market” by 2008. In other words, sell-offs to the non-state sector will continue.
为了安抚保守派，政府加强对改革的限制。去年12月，政府宣布，中央政府直接控制的国有企业依然在关系到国家安全和国民经济福利的行业保持垄断，这些行业包括：军事设备，电力系统，石油石化，电信，煤炭，航空航海等。但由中央直接控制的企业将从去年的161家逐渐下降到2010年大约80到100家。政府希望从中有30-50家企业走向国际市场。到2008年，如果国有企业依然不能扭亏为盈的话，将会被“退出市场”，换句话说，国有企业的转制将还将会继续进行。

At the NPC session, officials have continued to emphasise measures aimed at the poor. Mr Wen in his opening address said the government would “shift the focus” of state infrastructure development and the development of social programmes to the countryside, where income growth has been slower than in the cities (7.4% in real terms last year compared with 10.4% in urban areas). The aim is to develop what party leaders announced in late 2005 would be a “new socialist countryside” with subsidised health care and free schooling for all. From this year, said Mr Wen, schools would no longer charge tuition or other fees for children having their compulsory education (up to the end of junior high school). This will affect 150m families. A medical-insurance scheme, launched in 2003, is to cover 80% of rural areas by the end of this year, up from 50% at present. The aim is to have complete coverage by 2010.
在人大的会议上，官员们对贫困阶层问题表示了关注。温总理在他的公开讲话中提出，政府在基础设施的投资和社会保障的投入重点，将转移到对农业人口的关注。农村的经济增长率比城市要慢（去年农村的实际增长率是7。4%，而城市的增长率为10。4%）。目的是建立2005年底有党的领袖所提出的“社会主义新农村”，内容包括政府补助的医疗保障和对所有学龄儿童的免费教育。温总理说，从今年起，学校将不再对义务制教育的学生收费，直到他们初中毕业。由此得到受益的家庭将有1。5亿。2003年开始的医疗保障计划将在今年年底覆盖80%的农村地区。现在的覆盖率是50%。计划到2010年覆盖整个农业人口。

But these measures, though welcome to many, hardly amount to spectacular shifts in the government's spending priorities nor are they a colossal burden. Central-government support for rural areas and agriculture is to increase by 15% to about 392 billion yuan ($51 billion) this year. This is almost the same rate as this year's predicted increase in central-government revenue (2.4 trillion yuan is the target). It is also about the same as last year's increase in the government's spending in the countryside.
这些措施，虽然受到许多人的欢迎，但政府对农业的支出并没有任何的倾斜。今年中央政府对农村和农业的投入增长了15%，达到3920亿元人民币（510亿美元），这几乎和政府预计增加收入的比例相同（今年的目标是2.4万亿），和去年政府对农村的投入比例持平。

The armed forces, however, get a bigger boost. The budget presented to the NPC calls for a nearly 18% increase in military spending this year to 347 billion yuan. Most analysts believe this is far less than China's true spending. The armed forces have enjoyed double-digit budget increases for most of the past 15 years. The leadership knows well whom it really needs to keep happy.
军费倒是有长足的增加。根据提交的报告显示，军费增加了18%，达到3470亿元人民币。绝大多数的观察家都认为实际的支出远大于此。在过去的15年中，军费的增长一直保持的两位数字。看来，军方才是真正的受益者。

The central government has substantially increased its spending on health care, but from a very low base. This year it is forecast to rise by 87% to 31.3 billion yuan. Though it is encouraging that the central government is taking up a bigger share of health-care spending, this is still low: less than one-tenth of total government spending on the health sector last year. After four years in office Mr Wen has yet to announce any ideas for addressing one of the public's biggest concerns, namely the prohibitive cost of medical treatment for many urban and rural residents. Hospitals have been trying to generate revenues by pushing up medicine prices, over-prescribing drugs or recommending unnecessary procedures. Mr Wen was able to say only that the government had “begun formulating a plan”.
中央政府逐渐增加了对医疗保障的投入，但基数太低。今年预计增加87%，达到313亿元人民币。虽然中央政府增加了对医疗保障的投入份额，但还是不够。去年，政府对医疗保障的投入只占总支出的不到10%，在执政4年后，温总理提到，不管在城市还是农村，公众最关心的事情仍然还是飞速上涨的医疗费用。医院为了增加收入，提高药品价格，多开药及进行不必要的检查和治疗过程。温总理也只能说政府已经“开始制定相应的方案”来解决这个问题。

Even the health-insurance scheme in the countryside is not all it is cracked up to be. The programme requires contributions from peasants and provincial governments as well as the central government. The peasant has to pay only a dollar or two a year. But he still has to pay a considerable proportion of expenses for hospital treatment. Wealthier peasants may welcome the subsidy, but for poorer ones having to pay even a reduced share of hospital expenses still makes treatment unaffordable. The “new socialist countryside” campaign has its critics too. Mr Wen may not be to blame, but some village officials have used the campaign as an excuse to order the demolition of old houses and require villagers to borrow money to pay for new ones.
即使是农村的医疗保障项目也没有那么容易实现。此项目牵涉到农民，地方政府和中央政府三方面的投入。虽然农民只需每年拿出1到2个美元，但他们仍然要对所产生的医疗费用承担一定的比例。这对富裕的农民来说虽然是个好消息，但对穷困的农民来说，打了折扣的医疗费用，他们也负担不起。“社会主义新农村”项目本身也受到一些非议，矛头不是对着温总理的，而是农村的基层干部，他们借此推倒老房子，让农民们贷款盖新的房屋，从中牟取私利。

The central government is spending more on education: 54 billion yuan last year, an increase of more than 39%. This too will be welcome. Next to soaring housing costs (which Mr Wen pledged to keep at a “reasonable level” this year, without explaining his secret), education expenses are among the biggest complaints of urban residents. But the government remains way off the target set in the mid-1980s (when leftists enjoyed far more clout) of pushing education spending by central and local governments to 4% of GDP by the year 2000. Last year total spending increased by nearly 20% to 475 billion yuan, but this was less than 2.3% of GDP—“significantly lower” than the international average, according to a UN report in 2005.
中央政府对教育的投入进一步加大：去年是540亿元人民币，增长了39%。这当然是好消息。而城市居民抱怨最多的还是飞速上涨的房价（温总理呼吁今年将保持在一个“合理的”水平，但他并没有拿出具体措施）和子女的教育费用。政府依然还没有达到1980年代中期设立的目标：到2000年教育的投入要占GDP的4%。去年总投入增加了20%达到4750亿元，只占GDP的不到2.3%，根据联合国2005年的一份报告，这远低于国际的平均水平。

Far from using its fast-rising revenues (let alone issuing more debt) to finance pro-poor programmes, the government has stressed its goal of further reducing the central budget deficit. Last year this amounted to 275 billion yuan, a fairly healthy-sounding 1.3% of GDP. The plan is to cut it by another 30 billion yuan this year. “We can never start spending money hand over fist just because revenue has been relatively good recently,” said a budget report submitted to the NPC.
对于财政赤字方面，政府一直强调要进一步的削减。不会使用增加的财政收入来贴补扶贫计划。（更不用说增加财政的赤字）去年财政赤字达到2750亿元人民币，占GDP的1.3%，还算是健康的水平。今年计划进一步削减300亿元人民币。根据提交人代会的报告的说法，“我们不能在收入刚刚有所好转的情况下增加支出。”

A bit more equal than others
一点点小的倾斜

Mr Wen and Mr Hu may have swung to the left in their words, but they have kept the party's doors wide open to capitalists. In 2005 the party recruited 1,512 private-business owners, an increase of 170% over the previous year, according to a recent publication by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. The government's desire to keep all constituencies happy—but the middle class a bit more so than others—is reflected in the property- rights bill. Mr Gong says the drafters have added provisions on the protection of state property. But he dismisses these changes as superficial. “It would be a very shameful page in China's history” if the law is passed, he says. He is appealing for it to be delayed again. But Mr Hu and Mr Wen seem unenthused by their party's ideological baggage.
虽然胡温对弱势群体表示关注，但他们认为，共产党的大门一直对资本家是敞开的。根据中国社科院近期公布的一篇文章显示，2005年，加入共产党的私营企业主的数量是1512，比前年增加了170%。虽然政府一直在努力使得各个阶层的人满意，但在物权法这一点上，却是稍微对中产阶级有所倾斜。巩先生说，虽然立法者增加了对国有财产所有权的保护，但这还远远不够。如果该项法律得到通过，这在中国的历史上将写下“耻辱的一页”，他说。他再次恳请法案延期通过。但对于胡温来说，显然这次他们会放下意识形态的包袱，轻装前进。