Gong Xiantian, a professor of jurisprudence at Peking University Law School, will likely be noted in Chinese legislative history for causing a proposed law to go through an unprecedented seventh reading because of his online post.

During a regular meeting of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) on December 24-29, China's draft property rights law was submitted for deliberation for the seventh time. It is hoped that the law will be voted upon at the full NPC session in March.

The drafters of the law, who had spent eight years on the issue, were shocked and angered when the vote on the law was withdrawn from the agenda of the NPC full session last March pending further revision and deliberation.

"I am happy that my suggestions finally worked," Gong said in February after learning that the law had been shelved.

The marathon legislative process for this particular law indicates that China's legislature is seriously considering public opinion and making new moves to democratize the legislative processes.

An influential comment

On July 9, 2005, the Standing Committee of the NPC published the full text of the third draft of the Law on Property Rights, which had gone through three deliberations since December 2003, on its website to solicit public comment. In the first month, a total of 10,032 suggestions were collected from the public, which showed enormous interest in the law.

Yet the most influential suggestion didn't come until eight days before the deadline. On August 12, 2005, Gong posted online a letter with the sensational title "A Law That Goes Against the Principles of Socialism and the Constitution."

In his petition to China's top legislator Wu Bangguo, Gong, a Marxist legal theorist, said the essence of the draft law is to protect the real property rights of the extremely rich minority, though in form it sounds as if everyone's rights would be protected. "It equally protects a rich guy's limousine and a beggar's rod," he said sarcastically in the letter.

He also indicated that the embezzlement of state-owned assets during the reform of state-owned enterprises could worsen should the draft be made into law without major revisions. According to a Xinhua report, China loses 40 billion yuan of state-owned assets annually through internal mismanagement and fraud.

Gong's primary concern is that the proposed law fails to include a clause in the Constitution stating that state property is sacred and inviolable, "which is the foundation of socialist legislative work," he said.

Although Gong based his criticism on an ideological argument instead of a legal point of view, the letter created a huge controversy in society, where large-scale ideological debates over socialism and capitalism have been largely unheard of since reform architect Deng Xiaoping called for a renewed push toward a market-oriented economy during his visit to southern China in early 1992.