People keep telling me China won’t change and those wishes for democracy for the country are merely wishes, especially if I believe with a lot of public pressure, it will be achieved in a peaceful manner. Then again once upon a time, the idea a communist government will allow private property would have been laughed at. World shifts in ways unseen by those living the present.
By Benjamin Kang Lim
BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s parliament changes the constitution on Sunday to protect private property in a landmark move that will water down the core Communist ideology of the world’s most populous nation.
Almost 3,000 delegates to the rubber-stamp National People’s Congress will also pass a symbolic constitutional amendment proposed by the Communist Party to protect human rights for the first time when its 10-day annual session ends later in the day.
Premier Wen Jiabao vowed in his March 5 annual address to parliament to rein in the economy after years of breakneck growth, setting a 2004 growth target of seven percent compared with a GDP (news – web sites) rise of 9.1 percent in 2003.
Warning of a widening wealth gap that Beijing fears could spark social unrest, Wen outlined steps to scrap farm taxes and boost subsidies in rural areas — home to 800 million people.
He also pledged to create nine million new urban jobs and re-employ five million workers laid off from state firms that are struggling to stay in business as the private sector blossoms.
Top bank regulator Liu Mingkang and central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan pledged to speed reform of the nation’s ailing banking system, saddled with $240 billion in bad loans.
Finance Minister Jin Renqing forecast a $38.6 billion budget deficit in 2004, the same as last year’s record shortfall, but will keep the red ink in check by cutting stimulus spending.
Jin proposed an increase of 11.6 percent in the 2004 defense budget, part of a decade-long campaign to back up its military threat over Taiwan.
Wen is scheduled to hold a news conference at 0900 GMT and China watchers will be listening again to his every word on diplomatic rival Taiwan for hints of any reprisals for the island’s first referendum alongside presidential elections on March 20.
CONCILIATORY APPROACH
Wen, who will mark his first year in office on March 16, took a conciliatory approach to Taiwan in his opening day speech by offering to resume talks with the island Beijing regards as a breakaway province that must be returned to the fold.
Five decades after sweeping to power in a revolution in 1949, nationalizing private property and waging bloody campaigns against landlords, China’s parliament is set to amend the constitution to add the sentence: “Private property obtained legally is inviolable.”
The constitution, to be amended for the fourth time since its adoption in 1982, will put private property on an almost equal footing with public property — a key plan to sustain economic growth.
“The state respects and guarantees human rights” will be added, but critics said the constitution still puts the power of the party above all else and saw it as a tactical move to consolidate communist rule and maintain social stability.
The State Department accused China last month of human rights abuses such as extrajudicial killings and torture, and said Chinese authorities were “quick to suppress” opposing religious and political groups.
China rejects foreign criticism of its human rights record, saying fundamental human rights mean feeding, clothing and housing 1.3 billion people and that individual rights should take a back seat.
Jiang Zemin, who retired from the presidency in March 2003 and the top job in the Communist Party in November 2002, will join China’s pantheon of socialist greats when his “Three Represents” idea is enshrined in the constitution.
The “Three Represents” say the Communist Party stands for advanced productive forces, advanced culture and the interests of the majority of the Chinese people. The theory paved the way for the party to admit private entrepreneurs to its ranks.
Jiang retained his post as chairman of the state Central Military Commission — China’s top military job.
Yan Sham-Shackleton Online 