China Takes Steps to Protect Private Ownership of Land

China's communist legislators looked certain to adopt a key capitalist principle yesterday as they began debating the first constitutional protection of private property since the 1949 revolution.

The historic move - along with a proposal to enshrine the entrepreneur-friendly theories of the former president Jiang Zemin - are among the most significant steps yet taken to bring the legal framework into line with reality in a country that is being transformed by market forces.

In another sign of change, the UN world food programme announced that China no longer required the international food aid it has been receiving for 25 years. Instead it will be asked to become a donor and to share its experience of lifting 400 million people out of poverty.

Yesterday the standing committee of the Chinese parliament, the national people's congress, considered a constitutional amendment that would take the country further from its centrally planned and publicly owned economy.

"Private property obtained legally shall not be violated," said the proposal, quoted in the Xinhua news agency. "Private property should be on an equal footing with public property."

The amendment is certain to be approved in March by the national people's congress.

Millions of Chinese people have been applying the principle of private ownership for a long time. Although the government owns the land and has a controlling stake in many industries, more and more members of the rising middle class are buying homes and company shares.

Entrepreneurs say they need legal protection so they can invest with confidence. Homeowners are demanding assurances that their flats and houses will not suddenly be demolished by developers.

They have good reason to be concerned about the lack of safeguards. The explosive development of Beijing and other cities has been mired in corruption scandals involving property speculators and Communist party officials who control land usage rights.

President Hu Jintao has been reminded of the political risks of failing to protect the property-owning classes and to improve regulation of the developers. In recent months several people who have lost their homes have set fire to themselves in Tiananmen Square.

But the acceptance of property rights is also part of a long-term strategy to create a legal framework for the market forces that were introduced 25 years ago by Deng Xiaoping.

Rather more difficult has been finding a political rationale for the Communist party. This was the subject of the second amendment tabled yesterday - the constitutional enshrinement of the "Three Represents" capitalist-style theory of Mr Jiang. It takes its place alongside Marxism, Leninism and the theories of Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping.

Under the doctrine, the party is supposed to represent "advanced forces of production, advanced culture, and the interests of the majority of the people". It was the basis for allowing the party to accept business tycoons as members.

Although President Hu has promised a government that is more responsive to the people, democracy was notably absent from the proposed reforms.

The party argues that it has improved the standard of living of the vast majority of China's 1.2 billion people over the past 20 years. This was given a boost on Saturday by the head of the world food programme, who said China had graduated from its aid dependence.

The programme's executive director, James Morris, announced a new partnership with the government in Beijing that will see China start to provide rather than receive support from the international community.

"China has lifted as many as 400 million of its own people out of poverty in less than a generation," he said. "That is an extraordinary achievement."