Will amendments really be made in Constitution for property and human rights?
Today marks the beginning of the National People's Congress (NPC), the Chinese parliament which convenes only once a year. Of great import on the assembly's agenda is Prime Minister Wen Jiabao's State of the Nation address and economic report. But what everyone is anxiously awaiting concerns certain important constitutional amendments.
Hu Jintao's new administration, since he took office last year as president, has in fact already approved certain changes which will lead to protection of private property and human rights in the country. There is still much resistance on both fronts among the over 3000 government representatives attending the Congress.
Many NPC members are still deeply rooted in Maoist thinking and do not agree with all the changes China is undergoing as the country moves toward "socialism with Chinese characteristics".
To amend the constitution for the protection of private property means canceling all the progress made in the opposite direction under the rule of Mao Zedong. Many of these government leaders are now asking themselves if making room for private property rights and individual freedoms in the Chinese constitution will lead to the growth of a powerful opposition to the Communist Party.
Currently private enterprise contributes to over 23% of economic growth in terms of the country's gross domestic product. In addition, the efficiency and wealth of private industry greatly excels over that of their now obsolete and often anti-economic state-run competitors.
Among the debated changes to the Chinese constitution will be former president Jiang Zemin's "three representatives theory". According to his theory the Communist Party must also "represent" the country's entrepreneurial citizens. In Jiang Zemin's opinion, this would help create an alliance between China's economic and political powers.
The defense of private property has become an internal necessity. Due to the economic growth and consequential wealth in the state hands, China has allowed a state business sector to emerge, a business class often fed by corruption and which uses the Communist Party as a screen to seize hold of land and demolish homes without compensating citizens.
This occurs both in rural communities and in cities, where the country is setting out to restructure urban neighborhoods in preparation for the Olympic Games. Farmers and private owners both take legal recourse through the Chinese court system, but with the lack of precise laws and the conniving which occurs between judges and government leaders they are left even more powerless to defend themselves.
At least 10 persons, who had their property seized by the government, have attempted suicide in recent months. Some of them even set fire to themselves in Tiananmen Square and in front of the Zhongnanhai compound, headquarters to Beijing Communist Party leaders located near the Imperial Palace
On the human rights front, China has long defended those related to human sustenance: eating, clothing and living conditions. In 1999 Jiang Zemin signed UN conventions, but no actual changes were brought about in Chinese law concerning such human rights issues. Beyond statements of principle, it still remains to be proven how much human rights will be respected by future laws. Rights of religious expression and holding trade union meetings are stated in the Constitution, but then laws limit expression in ways controlled by the government. In China trade unions exist only under state auspices and faithful are allowed to worship in government authorized locales and have staff in accordance with Religious Affairs Department.
Also debated at the NPC meeting will be the rights of farmers in terms of land ownership (currently they are only allowed to "rent" property) in addition to new regulation of religious activities.
Meanwhile, police supervision has been ritually increased before the NPC assembly in Tiananmen Square and thoughout the country. For some days now gatherings have been forbidden in Tiananmen Square near the NPC headquarters, at the Great People's Assembly building. More than 200 activists were threatened by police officers and their employers who absolutely forbade them to go to Beijing or have no contract with anyone.
The activists wanted to protest against the destruction of their homes in the Beijing and Shanghai. Even some Protestants, who wanted to get petitions signed to free Christian prisoners, have been subject to police checks and controls. Li Shanna, whose husband is imprisoned Protestant leader Xu Yonghai, was warned by her office manager not to leave her home to go to work "for as long as the NPC is in session". Hua Huiqi, a Christian and human rights activist, has been forced to move outside his home only when accompanied by a 4 or 5 officers in police squad car.
When presenting the new amendments at the end of last December, the Xinhua news agency pointed out that such revisions to the China's constitution "must solidify Communist Party leadership". Many analysts think that until there is democracy in the country, both private property and human rights risk being subject to the interests of the Communist Party and will not be "respected" at all.
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