Property rights in China

China 's next revolution

Mar 8th 2007
From The Economist print edition

A new property law is a breakthrough, even though it raises hopes that one-party rule may dash

SOME 2,500 years ago, one of Confucius's big ideas was the “rectification of names”. If only, he argued, sons would behave filially, fathers paternally, kings royally and subjects loyally, all would be well with the world. A faint echo of this thesis has been resounding this week in the cavernous auditorium of Beijing's Great Hall of the People, where nearly 3,000 delegates to China's parliament, the National People's Congress (NPC), have been enjoying their annual fortnight of wining, dining, snoozing ( 打盹 )and pressing the “yes” button. Living up to one's name poses something of a problem for the Chinese Communist Party, which dictates the laws the NPC will pass, and whose name in Chinese literally means “the public-property party”.

To such a party it must be an ideological embarrassment that China has such a large and flourishing private sector, accounting for some two-thirds of GDP. So one law due to receive the NPC's rubber stamp this month, giving individuals the same legal protection for their property as the state, has proved unusually contentious. It was to be passed a year ago, but was delayed after howls of protest from leftists, who see it as among the final of many sell-outs of the ideas of Marx, Lenin and Mao Zedong, to which the party pretends fealty.

The party's decision to enact the law in spite of that resistance is a great symbolic victory for economic reform and the rule of law. Clearer, enforceable property rights are essential if China's fantastic 30-year boom is to continue and if the tensions it has generated are to be managed without widespread violence. Every month sees thousands of protests across China by poor farmers outraged at the expropriation of their land for piffling or no compensation. As in previous years, placating those left behind in China's rush for growth has been a main theme of the NPC (see article ).

In the cities, and of greater importance to the decision-makers pushing the law through, a growing middle class with its wealth tied up in houses wants to pass these assets on to their only children. These people are anxious about the security of their property and, like their fellows in the countryside, are becoming more assertive. In other countries the emergence of this group as an important political constituency has been followed by an unstoppable drift towards greater pluralism.

A journey of a thousand steps

In the short term, however, do not expect too much. The latest law is only one step in the slow trudge China is making out of the blind alley of Maoism. One big change in 2002 allowed businessmen to join the Communist Party, thus turning the revolutionary vanguard into a networking opportunity for bosses. In 2004 China changed the country's constitution to enshrine private-property rights. But the constitution is less a prescriptive document than a constantly changing description of what has just happened. So nothing changed.

This latest law, likewise, will not bring the full property-rights revolution China's development demands. Indeed, it will not meet the most crying need: to give peasants marketable ownership rights to the land they farm. If they could sell their land, tens of millions of underemployed farmers might find productive work. Those who stay on the farm could acquire bigger land holdings and use them more efficiently. Nor will the new law let peasants use their land as security on which they could borrow and invest to boost productivity. Nor, even now, will they be free from the threat of expropriation, another disincentive to investment. Much good land has already been grabbed, and the new law will merely protect the grabbers' gains.

This law cannot in itself resolve the murkiest question: who owns what? This is especially true in the countryside, where the mass collectivisation during Mao's Great Leap Forward of half a century ago left farmland “collectively” owned. Peasants have since been granted short (30-year) leases. But even outside agriculture it is often unclear whether a “private” enterprise is really owned by individuals or by a local government or party unit. Conversely, some “collective” or “state” enterprises operate in ways indistinguishable from the private interests of their bosses. Moreover, should an underdog try to use the new law to enforce his rights, the corrupt and pliant judiciary would usually ensure he was wasting his time. Since the Cultural Revolution, when the NPC passed just one law between 1967 and 1976, the legislature has been legislating quite prolifically. But the passage of laws is not the rule of law.

Which leads to a final obstacle: without an accountable executive branch, the necessary reform of the legal system is not going to happen. As the passage of the property law itself demonstrates, the party is showing itself somewhat more responsive to public opinion than it was in the past. But it still runs a government that does its best to silence most dissenting voices, strictly controls the press, and lavishes resources on the best cyber-censorship money can buy. Property rights are a start; but only contested politics and relatively open media can ensure that they are enforceable.

Petty-bourgeois fanaticism can be good for you

No revolution today then. Yet in the long term the leftist opponents of China's property law are surely right to be worried about what has been begun this month. They understand the law will entrench the rights of the carpet-baggers 投机家，冒险家 who have looted the state as it has privatised assets. They also understand that the law, for all its technicalities, does not chime with an avowedly communist government.

The leftists derive their theory not from Confucius, but from Marx. Were the latter writing today, he would surely see in China a revolution waiting to happen—or perhaps two. One is the bourgeois revolution led by the emerging property-owning middle class that the new law will help. The other is the potential for the simmering resentment in the countryside to boil over, perhaps in frustration at the law's shortcomings. Property rights are at the root of both—which is why the dozing (sleepy)NPC delegates may have started a process this month that will one day change their country completely.

dash somebody's hopes

to disappoint someone by telling them that what they want is not possible

Hopkins ' hopes were dashed when his appeal was denied.
rectify : formal to correct something that is wrong

ￚ synonym put right

I did my best to rectify the situation, but the damage was already done.

 

ￚ rectification  noun [uncountable and countable]

 

Filial / ˈf ɪ li ə l / formal 孝顺的

relating to the relationship of a son or daughter to their parents

her filial duty

 

if only 只要

spoken used to express a strong wish

If only he'd call!

 

Resound

formal to be mentioned or talked about a lot

The war still resounds in the country's folklore.

 

Cavernous / ˈkæv ə n ə s $ - ə rn ə s / literary

a cavernous room, space, or hole is very large and deep

a cavernous dining hall

 

 

rubber stamp [ countable]

a small piece of rubber with a handle, used for printing dates or names on paper

 

contentious / k ə n ˈten ʆə s /

1

causing a lot of argument and disagreement between people

contentious issue/area/subject etc

 Animal welfare did not become a contentious issue until the late 1970s.

 

Sellout

informal a situation in which someone has not done what they promised to do or were expected to do by the people who trusted them

a sellout of the poor for political reasons

 

fealty / ˈfi ː ə lti / [uncountable] old-fashioned

loyalty to a king, queen etc

 

expropriate / ɪ k ˈspr ə ʊ prie ɪ t $ - ˈspro ʊ - / [transitive] formal

1

if a government or someone in authority expropriates your private property, they take it away for public use

 

placate / pl ə ˈ ke ɪ t $ ˈple ɪ ke ɪ t / [transitive] formal

to make someone stop feeling angry

ￚ synonym appease

These changes did little to placate the unions.

 

Pluralism [uncountable] formal 多元化

when people of many different races, religions, and political beliefs live together in the same society, or the belief that this can happen successfully

a nation characterized by cultural pluralism

 

trudge / tr ʌ d ʒ / [intransitive always + adverb/preposition]

to walk with slow heavy steps, especially because you are tired or it is difficult to walk

We trudged home through the snow.

 

ￚ trudge noun [singular] the long trudge back up the hill

Blind alley 2 绝路 , 死胡同

a way of doing something that seems as if it will have a successful result, but which in fact does not

False information has led the police up a series of blind alleys.

 

 

Vanguard 1

in/at the vanguard (of something)

in the most advanced position of development

The shop has always been in the vanguard of London fashion trends.

2

the vanguard

the leading position at the front of an army or group of ships moving into battle, or the soldiers who are in this position

 

likewise 

1

formal in the same way

ￚ synonym similarly

Nanny put on a shawl and told the girls to do likewise .

[sentence adverb]The clams were delicious. Likewise, the eggplant was excellent.

Disincentive [countable]

something that makes people less willing to do something

ￚ opposite incentive

disincentive to (doing/do) something

High interest rates can be a disincentive to expanding a business.

 

Conversely :

used when one situation is the opposite of another

American consumers prefer white eggs; conversely, British buyers like brown eggs.

 

Underdog:

a person, team etc that is weaker than the others, is always expected to be unsuccessful, and that is often treated badly

Crowds often feel sympathy for the underdog .

 

Indistinguishable:

things that are indistinguishable are so similar that you cannot see any difference between them

indistinguishable from

an artificial material that is almost indistinguishable from real silk

 

pliant

easily influenced and controlled by other people

Pliant judges have been a problem in the past.

 

the judiciary

formal all the judges in a country who, as a group, form part of the system of government

 

prolific 4

existing in large numbers

the prolific bird life

 

passage 4

▶ OF A LAW ◀

[uncountable] when a new law is discussed and accepted by a parliament or Congress

passage through

The bill was amended several times during its passage through Congress.

They are expecting the new legislation to have quite a rough passage (=be discussed and criticized a lot) through parliament.

 

Dissent 1

to say that you disagree with an official decision or accepted opinion

dissent from

Few historians would dissent from this view.

There are some dissenting voices (=people who do not agree) among the undergraduates.

 

Lavish

to give someone or something a lot of love, praise, money etc

lavish something on/upon somebody

He lavished attention on her.

lavish somebody with something

Hug your children and lavish them with love.

 

Entrenched / ɪ n ˈtrent ʆ t /

strongly established and not likely to change - often used to show disapproval

entrenched in

Ageism is entrenched in our society.

entrenched attitudes/positions/interests etc

a deeply entrenched belief in male superiority

 

ￚ entrench verb [transitive]

 

Technicality 1

technicalities [plural] the small details of how to do something or how a system or process works

technicalities of

I don't really want to get into discussing the technicalities of laser printing.

2

a small detail in a law or a set of rules, especially one that forces you to make a decision that seems unfair

The case against him had to be dropped because of a legal technicality.

on a technicality

The proposal was rejected on a technicality (=because of a technicality) .

 

Chime with 2

[intransitive] to be the same as something else or to have the same effect

chime with

Her views on life didn't quite chime with mine.

 

avowed/ ə ˈ va ʊ d / [only before noun]

admitted or said publicly

an avowed atheist

 

 

bourgeois 1

belonging to the middle class

She came from a respectable bourgeois family. bourgeois morality

 

Boil over 2

if a situation or an emotion boils over, the people involved stop being calm

All the bitterness of the last two years seemed to boil over.

boil over into

Anger eventually boils over into words and actions that are later regretted.