The third plenary session of the 16th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, which concluded yesterday, is likely to prove to be another historic milestone in China's long road of reform.
The central theme of the meeting's resolution was to improve the socialist market economic system. Significantly, it recognised the importance of establishing a modern system of distinguishing, protecting and transferring property rights as conducive to the protection of private property and the development of the non-collectivist - ie. private - sector of the economy.
This new thinking will be implemented by amending the national constitution. Ex-president Jiang Zemin's Theory of the Three Represents - seen as a way of bringing the private sector into the mainstream - is to be incorporated. But more important, on a practical level, is the proposal to give legal protection to private property rights for the first time. After years of reform and restructuring, a rapidly expanding class of entrepreneurs and professionals who are not employees of the state has emerged across the country. They have become rich principally by applying their skills and talents. Yet, in a communist state that still officially reveres collective ownership and despises private property, they feel insecure. They are yearning for recognition of their contributions to the country's growth as well as for protection of the fruits of their labour.
If the Communist Party is to continue to maintain its grip over the country - which it has every intention of doing - it simply has to absorb them into the party; otherwise, it risks forcing them to band together to form a potentially dangerous opposition that threatens the party's legitimacy. Interestingly, in trying to accommodate the private sector, the party has obviously become less dogmatic. Ideologically, it is looking increasingly like a socialist party in the west, apart from its illogical insistence on one-party rule.
Surely, past reforms over the years have established a strong foundation for the country to embark on further growth and metamorphosis. At the same time, the country also faces numerous problems - mass unemployment, a widening wealth gap, rampant corruption and a government that is overly intrusive, inefficient, unaccountable and opaque.
This is an opportunity for the new leaders - who only took over the helm of the party a year ago - to make their own mark on the agenda that China will be following in the years ahead. It is time to shift gear and move on.
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