It has finally come to this: Communist China is changing its Constitution to embrace the most basic tenet of capitalism, protecting private property rights for the first time since the 1949 revolution.
China's parliament is meeting in an annual session starting on Friday to endorse the change, already approved by Communist Party leaders who tout privatization as a way to continue China's economic revolution and help tens of millions of poor Chinese.
It will bring China's legal framework in line with its market-oriented ambitions by providing a constitutional guarantee for entrepreneurs, once considered the enemy of communism but now pivotal in generating jobs and wealth.
"Since private businesses have been playing an increasingly important role in China's economy, their demand for legitimate protection has also increased," said Wang Hongling of the Institute of Economics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a government think tank.
"The amendment will offer private businessmen a guarantee to their property safety and make them free of worry," he said.
The notion would have been unthinkable to many of the revolutionaries who fought under Mao Zedong (
The National People's Congress, which mainly carries out the will of the party leadership, will codify what has been a shift in the leaders' attitude since Mao's time.
"It signals a kind of a victory for people who believe that the state should give more respect to private property. Legally speaking, I don't think it'll change much," said Donald Clarke, a professor at the University of Washington's School of Law in Seattle.
"All I think it will affect is the tone of policy-making," he said. "It's another piece of rhetorical ammunition for people who think the state should compensate more."
The change mandates that "private property obtained legally shall not be violated" and will be "on an equal footing with public property."
Entrepreneurs might find it easier to get loans from state banks, which now lend almost exclusively to comparatively low-risk state-run companies. With their private property protected, businesses could use it as collateral to get loans.
Over time, the law will adapt to the trading of real estate, stocks or bonds and other activities that are already under way in China, often without legal protections or guidelines.
"The recognition means that private enterprises will be given a level playing field in competition with state-owned enterprises," said Joseph Cheng (
"How well the policy will be implemented, we'll have to wait and see," he said.
Some Chinese entrepreneurs complain that regulations already protect the investments of foreign businesses in China. For manager Zhou Wei at Aokang Group, China's second-largest shoe-maker, the amendment is imperative.
"It protects the confidence of the private businessmen so that they can pursue and create wealth," Zhou said in a telephone interview from his office in Wenzhou, a city in Zhejiang Province.
"As private businessmen, we feel it is a natural progression for the government. It is in the interests of most of the people in China," he said.
Aokang employs more than 5,000 people and produces 10 million pairs of shoes a year. It owns 2,000 stores in China and has branches in the US, Japan, Italy, Spain and Germany.
In Beijing, resident Zhan Wenzhao said the amendment would promote investment.
"For me, a small homeowner, I am not too excited over the news," Zhan said. But, he added, "It is now clear that as an owner, I have rights and I will use law to protect myself if my rights are infringed in future.
The proposed amendment pays homage to former president Jiang Zemin (
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