As economic reform deepens in the PRC, the tricky question of private property continues to pop up. 

     Last March, a law was ready to be enacted by the National People’s Congress that would have begun a process of recognizing private property rights in China.   This obviously goes to the heart of whatever vestigial sense of "socialism" that might remain in the People’s Republic.  And that is why there was enough conservative (which, in this context, means old-line socialist) opposition to force postponement of the law.  Well, as they say in the movies, its b-a-a-a-ck:

China’s controversial draft property law, a sweeping bill designed to protect
both public and private ownership, is about to be submitted to the country’s top
legislature for the sixth time.

The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC) will convene
next Friday for a five-day regular legislative session. Sources close to the NPC
on Friday said the draft property law would be a key issue on the agenda.

The draft was first submitted to the legislature in 2002 and has gone through
a rare fifth reading. It was withdrawn from the NPC full session in March amid
worries that the draft, the country’s first specific law to protect private
ownership, could undermine the legal foundation of China’s socialist system.

But opposition faded after drafters revised the fifth version in August to
install state ownership at the heart of the economic system.

 The line about installing "state ownership at the heart of the economic system" is, I believe, a sop to the conservatives.  The ideology of "reform and opening" has always held that China continues to be "socialist" (with "Chinese characteristics") and that state property is, in the old Maoist terminology, the "key link."  To now say that state ownership will be "installed," might be making the conservatives point for them – i.e. it has already been swamped by private capital.  But all of this is a sleight of hand.  What the law really does is elevate the legal status of private property, and that is the most significant change.

    What else can be said at this point?  I have been calling on Confucian arguments a lot of late, so let me turn to the Taoist Lieh Tzu.  He has an idea about private property:

In reality the myriad things of heaven and earth are not separate from each other; and to claim anything as one’s own is always wrong-headed. (31)

     He’s against it!  Just like the old socialist conservatives.  I wonder if they will now cast aside their Marxist rationale and argue that private property is contrary to Way…..   But I’m not holding my breath.