The draft law on real rights should especially aim to prevent private properties being infringed by any entity, said an editorial in China Business Times. An excerpt follows:

The draft law on tangible property rights - also known as real rights - was submitted to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislator, for review on October 22, putting the issue of protecting private property again under the nationwide spotlight.

Since early 1950s, China tried in several attempts to draft the civil code but failed simply because of the lack of a proper social and economic foundation characterized then by single public ownership under the planned economy. However, as the socialist market economy came into being, the time has come to draw up a civil code.

As for legal practices, the courts handled some 5 million civil cases in 2001, accounting for 80 percent of all cases.

As for the current social and economic landscape, the harmonious co-existence of various ownership systems badly needs a unified national law system, instead of a host of fragmented departmental rules to protect it.

In addition, amendment to the Constitution gives private properties equal legal status with public ones, and therefore a new law which gives no preference to any specific kind of property ownership is needed.

Under the draft law, private, State-owned or collectively-owned properties are subject to equal protection. The market economy China is striving to build demands legal subjects are not treated differently because of their different ownership types. In this sense, the draft law comes at the right time.

Private property has not been taken seriously in China for a long time. Unfair and under-compensated infringement upon private properties could be found everywhere. For example, some local governments take away farmers' land under the guise of infrastructure construction, but in fact, a large proportion of the land is used for business profits while farmers only get meagre compensation.

The draft law on real rights is one of the major parts of the current legislative and tops the agenda. The law should focus on protecting private properties from any kind of infringement - including illegal interference from the government.

(China Daily November 8, 2004)