UPDATE: Bao Tong has written a second essay on the Property Law, which you can read in English here.
This essay was broadcast Friday March 16 by RFA’s Mandarin service.
The Property Law of the People’s Republic of China was passed by a majority of 97% in the National People’s Congress.
What does this mean? It means the final bankruptcy of the theories and policies of the “transitional stage” of socialism proposed by Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong in 1953.
It means that after repeated twists and turns for more than half a century, China has finally come full circle. Back to where it started. The first half of this circle took the abolition of private property as its centrepoint, with the nationalization of property and of the economy. But the things which were taken from Chinese citizens had precious little to do with either the state or the people. In fact all that nationalized property and the state-run command economy would have been more aptly named “official property” or “the Party leadership economy”, because without officials, you wouldn’t have groups of Party leaders in charges of allocating and disposing of these resources. The result was the blatant plunder of private property in the name of the nation and the people, and the loss of any stable basis for the continuance of socialism, throwing the entire country into a continual process of upheaval. This process, still lauded by some theorists in the Party as ‘revolution’, or ‘Mao Zedong Thought’, or, ‘a firm basis for socialism’, was enshrined in the Constitution.
The second half of this circle was marked by the silent cries of ordinary Chinese citizens amid the bloodshed and horror of the 1989 massacre. Driven by the genuine wishes of the Chinese people for reform, the concept of private (people’s) ownership and the private sector of the economy was inaugurated. This was the historical origin of the huge cleft that was to widen between rich and poor across the length and breadth of the country. Those with houses close to the water saw the moon first, with an increase in both prosperity levels, and in corruption. We saw the creation of millionaires, multi-millionaires and billionaires. We saw a lot of people get rich quick at township, county, city, provincial and national level. This second half of the circle was described as ‘the self-perfection of the socialist system’, or ‘Deng Xiaoping Thought’, or ‘The Key Features of the Three Represents’, and inscribed into the Constitution.
The first and the second halves of that circle constitute contemporary Chinese history under Communist Party leadership in its entirety. At least 40 million lives were sacrificed during the civil war to prepare the ground for this. Another turn of the wheel, and a further 40 million lives were lost during the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution.
After paying such steep tuition fees in blood, the wheel has come full circle, and China is back where it started.
Perhaps, like Rome in the second century AD, there will indeed be a new dawn. Perhaps China will manage to build a civil law system with private property rights at the heart of it.
Chinese history over the past 50 years; no, the past 80 years, must now be rewritten. That is the awesome enlightenment brought by the passing of the Property Law.
So does it have any flaws? In the 13 years of its drafting, we ordinary citizens certainly didn’t get a peek at this momentous document. But we can tell from the way in which the bill approached the NPC that this probably isn’t a particularly mature phenomenon. How could it be? This law which affects the property rights of 1.4 billion people was listened to once through by the delegates to the NPC, who then divided up into working groups to study it further, spawning thereby a whole new host of documents on the subject. And then, suddenly, it was rushed through hurriedly.
Some people have advanced the view that having a law is better than not having one. But I wonder what sort of effect it can possibly have, for good or ill, in real life. I wouldn’t want to speak too soon.
Photo credit: Markus Hofer
Apologies for the error (now corrected to 40 million). Thanks to John and Rebecca for noticing. It did get picked up by RFA’s editing process by then I posted an earlier, uncorrected version by mistake.
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RFA News in English
“China Has Come Full Circle” — Bao Tong on the “Enlightenment” ushered in by China’s new Property Law
UPDATE: Bao Tong has written a second essay on the Property Law, which you can read in English here.
This essay was broadcast Friday March 16 by RFA’s Mandarin service.
The Property Law of the People’s Republic of China was passed by a majority of 97% in the National People’s Congress.
What does this mean? It means the final bankruptcy of the theories and policies of the “transitional stage” of socialism proposed by Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong in 1953.
It means that after repeated twists and turns for more than half a century, China has finally come full circle. Back to where it started. The first half of this circle took the abolition of private property as its centrepoint, with the nationalization of property and of the economy. But the things which were taken from Chinese citizens had precious little to do with either the state or the people. In fact all that nationalized property and the state-run command economy would have been more aptly named “official property” or “the Party leadership economy”, because without officials, you wouldn’t have groups of Party leaders in charges of allocating and disposing of these resources. The result was the blatant plunder of private property in the name of the nation and the people, and the loss of any stable basis for the continuance of socialism, throwing the entire country into a continual process of upheaval. This process, still lauded by some theorists in the Party as ‘revolution’, or ‘Mao Zedong Thought’, or, ‘a firm basis for socialism’, was enshrined in the Constitution.
The second half of this circle was marked by the silent cries of ordinary Chinese citizens amid the bloodshed and horror of the 1989 massacre. Driven by the genuine wishes of the Chinese people for reform, the concept of private (people’s) ownership and the private sector of the economy was inaugurated. This was the historical origin of the huge cleft that was to widen between rich and poor across the length and breadth of the country. Those with houses close to the water saw the moon first, with an increase in both prosperity levels, and in corruption. We saw the creation of millionaires, multi-millionaires and billionaires. We saw a lot of people get rich quick at township, county, city, provincial and national level. This second half of the circle was described as ‘the self-perfection of the socialist system’, or ‘Deng Xiaoping Thought’, or ‘The Key Features of the Three Represents’, and inscribed into the Constitution.
The first and the second halves of that circle constitute contemporary Chinese history under Communist Party leadership in its entirety. At least 40 million lives were sacrificed during the civil war to prepare the ground for this. Another turn of the wheel, and a further 40 million lives were lost during the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution.
After paying such steep tuition fees in blood, the wheel has come full circle, and China is back where it started.
Perhaps, like Rome in the second century AD, there will indeed be a new dawn. Perhaps China will manage to build a civil law system with private property rights at the heart of it.
Chinese history over the past 50 years; no, the past 80 years, must now be rewritten. That is the awesome enlightenment brought by the passing of the Property Law.
So does it have any flaws? In the 13 years of its drafting, we ordinary citizens certainly didn’t get a peek at this momentous document. But we can tell from the way in which the bill approached the NPC that this probably isn’t a particularly mature phenomenon. How could it be? This law which affects the property rights of 1.4 billion people was listened to once through by the delegates to the NPC, who then divided up into working groups to study it further, spawning thereby a whole new host of documents on the subject. And then, suddenly, it was rushed through hurriedly.
Some people have advanced the view that having a law is better than not having one. But I wonder what sort of effect it can possibly have, for good or ill, in real life. I wouldn’t want to speak too soon.
Photo credit: Markus Hofer
Apologies for the error (now corrected to 40 million). Thanks to John and Rebecca for noticing. It did get picked up by RFA’s editing process by then I posted an earlier, uncorrected version by mistake.
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Filed under: China | Tagged: bao tong, china_civilrights, china_civil_rights, china_rights, commentary, East Asia, east_asia, governance, radio_free_asia |