The Fight Against Eminent Domain in China
Some encouraging news from China via the British Independent:
China's Communist leaders have drafted a proposal to safeguard private property, saying rising personal wealth needs better legal protection.
The proposed property law being debated by China's annual parliament….is the first to cover an individual's right to own assets in China…."
It's being couched in the weird doublespeak rhetoric that China's continued official dedication to old party principles requires:
"Enacting the property law is necessitated by the need to uphold the basic socialist economic system… and by the need to safeguard the immediate interests of the people," said Wang Zhaoguo of the Communist Party's politburo, who introduced the bill.
"People's living standards have improved in general, and they urgently require effective protection of their own lawful property accumulated through hard work," he told 2,835 delegates gathered in the Great Hall of the People.
…….the legislation is a groundbreaking effort to protect private wealth by a government that only a generation ago preached egalitarianism and jailed or executed entrepreneurs as "capitalist roaders". The party is taking this step because a lack of clarity about property rights has allowed corrupt local officials to snatch up land, businesses and homes at will, without giving compensation, causing widespread anger and undermining the government's efforts to encourage private enterprise.
The government needs the growing army of Chinese entrepreneurs to pay taxes and generate jobs.
…….the 40-page final text is very likely to be passed on 16 March when it comes up for vote.
The bill is being sold as a way of protecting the rights of farmers. Official figures show that nearly 200,000 hectares of rural land are taken from farmers every year for industrial purposes, one of the main reasons for the "mass incidents", or petitions and protests, in rural areas.
[Link via Rational Review .]