China's sort of Congress
The annual session of China's National People's Congress, currently underway in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, is not quite the ritual of absolute fealty it used to be. Reporters get to chase delegates in the hallways and insiders say there are some lively debates in the closed sessions. Still, the two-week gathering of 2,980 carefully vetted delegates remains largely a choreographed show by the ruling Communist Party to put the stamp of legality on decisions already taken. And just so democracy doesn't get out of hand, while the Congress has been meeting, authorities have warned some dissidents and independent thinkers to steer clear of foreign journalists and have put others under house arrest.
This year, the decisions up for ratification by the Congress include a major new property law that would give private property greater security by putting it on a legal par with public ownership. If the Communist leaders are willing to put aside their ideology on property to continue their remarkable economic boom, why not take another essential step and make the Congress a real legislature that listens to the unmuzzled views of real people. And follow that up with an independent — and uncorrupted — judiciary that can make sure that all of China's citizens get the benefits of the rule of law.
An early draft of the property law provoked an acrimonious debate between ideologues, for whom property rights are heresy, and the growing moneyed class, which wants to protect its assets. It is also not clear whether the current version will adequately address the expropriation of collectively owned land from peasants for development — one of the biggest sources of rural unrest.
In his two-hour opening speech to the Congress, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao proclaimed the government's intention to "pay closer attention to promoting social development and improving people's well-being." But even if the laws rubber-stamped by the Congress do reflect a greater sensitivity to one part of public opinion — those who are driving the boom — they are the product of an authoritarian leadership that still holds itself above the law.
The conflicts revealed by the property law are not simply growing pains of a red-hot economy, as China's leaders would have it, to be resolved by shifting perks or property rights. They are the conflicts of a changing society that can be worked out only in full and open debate — in the press, on the Internet, in a real courtroom, and by a real congress.
