The “Common Property Party” Protects Private Property? Only in China!
Wendy Liu
March 24, 2007
Private property is such an ordinary concept in a free market economy as in the United States, it stirs up no more excitement than the rain in Seattle. But in China, private property has long been the forbidden fruit because all properties in the People’s Republic were supposed to be common. In fact, “gong chan,” or “common property,” are the two words in Chinese for communist, therefore the name of China’s ruling party, the Communist Party, or the “Common Property Party.”
Yet, a new property law has just been passed by China’s National People’s Congress. It states, "The property of the state, the collective, the individual and other obligees is protected by law, and no units or individuals may infringe upon it." Think about it: The “common property party” in power is making sure that private property is legally protected. “The sun must be rising from the west!” as the Chinese would say. It sure feels like it.
In my “previous” life in China, I was first a member of the Communist Young Pioneers, a “school of communism” for children. Our song was called “We are the successors of communism.” In college, I was recruited into the Communist Youth League, which prepared young people for the communist party. But of course, not everyone was invited into the Communist Party, which was for the truly devoted, devoted to the cause of “common property.”
But “common property” was not just a name of organizations. It was “the basis of the socialist economic system,” as written in China’s Constitution. In other words, it was also fact of life. In the early 1950s, China underwent the socialist transformation. By 1956, 99% of its industry, 93% of its agriculture and 85% of its commerce were brought under public ownership. Everybody worked for the state. Nobody owned anything beyond a watch or bicycle. Private was a dirty and dangerous word. People got criticized or had to criticize themselves for acting or thinking out of their private interests instead of those for the common good. A constant warning for all citizens was “All public and no private.”
Indeed. Communism was the theory and practice to eliminate private property and establish a system where goods are owned in common and for all. That was exactly what the Chinese Communist Party believed in and carried out in China for several decades. It was also its excuse for all the political movements and persecutions aimed at cleansing the Chinese society of all un-communist beliefs, practices, and people.
But the “common property” revolution didn’t work out as well as expected. In 1978, the very “Common Property Party” launched the historic program of “Reform and Opening Up” and brought back the phoenix of “private” from the ashes. Privatization has been marching on steadily in China since. Its strides are well recorded in China’s Constitution and its amendments.
For instance, the 1982 version said: “Working people who are members of rural economic collectives have the right, within the limits prescribed by law, to farm private plots of cropland…” Before that, it was a crime to engage in any private farming.
The 1988 amendment reads: "The State permits the private sector of the economy to exist and develop within the limits prescribed by law. The private sector of the economy is a complement to the socialist public economy..." That was the first time private economy was officially recognized.
In 2004, this unprecedented clause appeared in the Chinese Constitution: “Citizens' lawful private property is inviolable.” Inviolable?! That word had been reserved only for the public property before.
The Constitution, however, is only a reflection, a slow one at that, of the real life in China today. In 2006, more than 300,000 Chinese citizens had a net worth over $1 million. The world’s most expensive limo, the $1.2 million Bentley, saw more sales in Beijing than anywhere else. In terms of GDP, the private sector already accounted for a whopping 70% of China’s total in 2005!
And now the new law to protect all those private properties of nouveau riches in China, a country that still calls itself socialist and ruled by a party that still calls itself communist, or common property-ist?
It sounds like a misnomer. It looks contradictory. But China, or the Chinese Communist Party, can no longer be judged by outdated names or terms. They are defying defining. But hey, why bother? As the late Deng Xiaoping, the architect of all this incomprehensible development, used to say: “It doesn’t matter if a cat is black or white as long as it catches mice.”
Yet, a new property law has just been passed by China’s National People’s Congress. It states, "The property of the state, the collective, the individual and other obligees is protected by law, and no units or individuals may infringe upon it." Think about it: The “common property party” in power is making sure that private property is legally protected. “The sun must be rising from the west!” as the Chinese would say. It sure feels like it.
In my “previous” life in China, I was first a member of the Communist Young Pioneers, a “school of communism” for children. Our song was called “We are the successors of communism.” In college, I was recruited into the Communist Youth League, which prepared young people for the communist party. But of course, not everyone was invited into the Communist Party, which was for the truly devoted, devoted to the cause of “common property.”
But “common property” was not just a name of organizations. It was “the basis of the socialist economic system,” as written in China’s Constitution. In other words, it was also fact of life. In the early 1950s, China underwent the socialist transformation. By 1956, 99% of its industry, 93% of its agriculture and 85% of its commerce were brought under public ownership. Everybody worked for the state. Nobody owned anything beyond a watch or bicycle. Private was a dirty and dangerous word. People got criticized or had to criticize themselves for acting or thinking out of their private interests instead of those for the common good. A constant warning for all citizens was “All public and no private.”
Indeed. Communism was the theory and practice to eliminate private property and establish a system where goods are owned in common and for all. That was exactly what the Chinese Communist Party believed in and carried out in China for several decades. It was also its excuse for all the political movements and persecutions aimed at cleansing the Chinese society of all un-communist beliefs, practices, and people.
But the “common property” revolution didn’t work out as well as expected. In 1978, the very “Common Property Party” launched the historic program of “Reform and Opening Up” and brought back the phoenix of “private” from the ashes. Privatization has been marching on steadily in China since. Its strides are well recorded in China’s Constitution and its amendments.
For instance, the 1982 version said: “Working people who are members of rural economic collectives have the right, within the limits prescribed by law, to farm private plots of cropland…” Before that, it was a crime to engage in any private farming.
The 1988 amendment reads: "The State permits the private sector of the economy to exist and develop within the limits prescribed by law. The private sector of the economy is a complement to the socialist public economy..." That was the first time private economy was officially recognized.
In 2004, this unprecedented clause appeared in the Chinese Constitution: “Citizens' lawful private property is inviolable.” Inviolable?! That word had been reserved only for the public property before.
The Constitution, however, is only a reflection, a slow one at that, of the real life in China today. In 2006, more than 300,000 Chinese citizens had a net worth over $1 million. The world’s most expensive limo, the $1.2 million Bentley, saw more sales in Beijing than anywhere else. In terms of GDP, the private sector already accounted for a whopping 70% of China’s total in 2005!
And now the new law to protect all those private properties of nouveau riches in China, a country that still calls itself socialist and ruled by a party that still calls itself communist, or common property-ist?
It sounds like a misnomer. It looks contradictory. But China, or the Chinese Communist Party, can no longer be judged by outdated names or terms. They are defying defining. But hey, why bother? As the late Deng Xiaoping, the architect of all this incomprehensible development, used to say: “It doesn’t matter if a cat is black or white as long as it catches mice.”
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