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Proposals to add protecting property and human rights to the
Chinese Constitution and other issues affecting ordinary citizens
have attracted huge public attention as two of the nation's top
legislature and advisory bodies prepare to meet.
"If such an idea as the protection of lawful private property
had been written into China's Constitution, some local governments
and real estate developers would feel less confident about
recklessly leveling private residences," a Shanghai-based real
estate lawyer Liu Weiping, specializing in the illegal demolition
of residential houses by local governments and real estate
developers, said Tuesday.
Liu made the remark before annual sessions of the National
People's Congress (NPC) and the Chinese People's Political
Consultative Conference (CPPCC), which are scheduled to open in
early March.
The deliberation of the draft amendment to the Constitution,
which has been arousing attention from all circles, will be placed
high on the agenda for the NPC session.
It will be the Constitution's fourth amendment, involve 14
revisions and cover a wide range of issues of public concern not
tackled before.
The protection of citizens' lawful private property and respect
for and protection of human rights will be written into the
Constitution. Some revisions will also be made to improve the land
requisition, social welfare and insurance systems.
The current Constitution, which contains 138 articles in four
chapters, was formulated in 1982. It has been amended three times,
with a total of 17 revisions.
"Adding 'respect for and protection of human rights' to the
Constitution shows that securing citizens' rights will be promoted
to a very high level," said Liu Jitong, Phd, from the Sociology
Department of Peking University.
Wang Yufeng, a 25-year-old white-collar worker in a private
company, said although he has a handsome salary now, he and his
colleagues still worry about whether their future pensions and
medical care will be ensured. Many people like Wang even choose to
emigrate to other countries.
"We hope the country's social welfare and insurance system will
not only care for the disadvantaged, but also pay attention to
white collar workers," he said.
Professor Wang Lei from the Law School of Peking University said
improving the social insurance system will be included in the
Constitution this time, because China's existing market economy
calls for a matching system of social welfare and insurance to meet
the public's increasing demands on social security.
Corruption and others
But amending the Constitution is not the only hot issue
attracting attention.
A survey on one of China's largest news websites, asking "What
issues in the upcoming NPC and CPPCC sessions attract you most?"
revealed a long list, including anti-corruption, unbalanced
economic development throughout China's regions, the income gap,
increasing farmers' income, educational charges, the legal rights
of migrant farmers, the emergency response system for public
health, and the so-called March 20 Taiwan referendum.
Anti-corruption is the top concern for some 83 percent of those
who took part in the survey.
People said the central government's determination to fight
against corruption can be seen in the punishment of 13
ministerial-level officials for corruption, including the former
Vice-Governor of Anhui Province, Wang Huaizhong, and the former
Minister of Land and Resources, Tian Fengshan, throughout 2003.
"We still need a lot of improvements in the emergency response
system for public health, though we have such a system after the
outbreak of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2003,"
said Zhang Baolan, director of the Medical Department of the
Central Hospital under the Headquarters of General Staff of the
People's Liberation Army.
During the annual sessions, NPC deputies and CPPCC members are
expected to hear the government's work report, a report on the
plans for economic and social development, a budget report, and
work reports from the NPC Standing Committee, the Supreme People's
Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate.
They will review the past year's work by the central government
and also deploy the work for the new year.
Professor Wu Jiang from the National School of Administration
said the central authorities have done "efficient and effective"
work over the past year, like fighting SARS, making efforts to curb
unemployment, increasing farmers' income and realizing an annual
economic growth rate of 9.1 per cent.
"More importantly, the new central government has adopted a
down-to-earth attitude and formed a work style of seeking truth in
their leadership," said Wu. "All this may let the public believe
that the reports made by the government are not only a summary of
the past year's work, but also will exert far-reaching influence on
the future life of the Chinese public."
(China Daily February 25, 2004)
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