China's draft law on property rights to be debated at the upcoming
parliamentary session is in line with the country's Constitution, a spokesman
for the session said Sunday.
"The opinion is one-sided to claim that the draft law doesn't conform with
the Constitution," Jiang Enzhu, spokesman for the Fifth Session of the Tenth
National People's Congress (NPC), told a press conference ahead of the session.
The long debated draft property rights law has been questioned by some people
for its attempt to grant equal protection to state, collective and private
properties.
Within a socialist market economy, which is stipulated in the Constitution,
all market entities enjoy equal rights.
"No matter it is state, collective or private property, it should be
protected equally. Otherwise people's enthusiasm to create and accumulate wealth
in legal ways will be impaired, and the country's prosperity and social
stability will also be harmed, " he said.
As part of the draft civil code, China's property bill was submitted to the
NPC Standing Committee for the first review in 2002 and withdrawn from the NPC
full session last March amid worries that the draft, the country's first
specific law to protect private ownership, might undermine the legal foundation
of China's socialist system.
The draft was further revised last August to install state ownership at the
heart of the economic system. It also added measures to prevent fraudulent
acquisitions and mergers of state assets.
The spokesman cited several provisions in the draft law, saying that the
draft has stressed the protection of state assets and it prohibits the illegal
possession, looting, secret partition and demolition of state assets.
"Provisions of the draft law fully demonstrate the constitutional spirit in
enhancing the protection of socialist public property," Jiang said.
After unprecedented seven rounds of debate, NPC Standing Committee members
agreed in last December to table the draft to the Fifth Session of the Tenth
NPC.
"The draft is relatively mature...I believe it will be further improved after
being debated at the annual session," Jiang said.
The annual full session of the Tenth NPC is scheduled to open Monday morning.
