China Capitalism in the constitution Proposed amendments to the Chinese constitution reflect the growing role of the private economic sector. In March the National People's Congress (NPC) rubber-stamped the following proposals from the the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Zhang Kai
1. In the Preamble, "the guidance of Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought" will be extended to include "Deng Xiaoping's theory". Equating Deng Xiaoping's proposals for market reform with the theories of Marxism-Leninism eases the process of revision of Marxist socialist theory, and justifies the reversion to capitalism launched in the past two decades.
2. The Constitution will contain a new statement that: "At the preliminary stage of socialism, the state insists on a basic economic system with public ownership being the mainstay and multiple ownership systems in co-development; the state also insists on a distribution system with distribution according to labour input being the primary mode, and multiple distribution modes in co-existence."
3. Article 11 of the Constitution will be amended to "non-public ownership economies such as individual economy or private economy that operate within legal binds are socialist market economy ithe original is that they are "supplenomy] The lawful rights and interests of the individual economy and the private economy are safeguarded by the state."
These constitutional reforms reflect the growing weight of the capitalist economic sector. In the past two decades, the private economic sector has rapidly expanded. About 100 million people now work in the private sector:
• There are 970,000 private employers, employing 13.5 million
• Over 234,000 foreign-registered companies, including from
Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau, have invested US$232 billion in the mainland, employing a current workforce of 17.5 million;
• 54 million citizens have registered as self-employed;
• Large number of rural workers are now employed in private enterprises in rural industries.
In 1998, the state-owned sector represented less than one third of GDP. In 1997, state-owned industries produced only 26.5% of the total industrial output, and state-owned commerce was responsible for only 24.3% of total retail trade of consumer goods-less than the private and converted in different ways into private property. The current Constitutional amendments give legal recognition to the expansion of the capitalist forces.
In order to accommodate the opening of the market and the invitation of foreign investments, China must give political assurances to potential investors. Hence the new constitutional insistence that China "practises the rule of law, and constructs a socialist country ruled by law." This may offer some assurances to the safeguarding of the rights of entrepreneurs, but for the ordinary people, this new article is likely to exist in form only, like those in the Constitution that guarantee the freedoms and rights of citizens for speech, publication, gathering and association.
In practice, whenever Chinese citizens have tried to exercise these freedoms and rights, they have been arrested and sent to jail or labour camps
In response to persistent criticism of its abusive use of the charge of "counter-revolutionary" activities to clampdown on dissidents, the CCP proposes a constitutional amend. ment that changes the charge of "counter-revolution" to "jeopardising state security". But this change of title does not mean that dissidents will not be persecuted These lesser crimes can still attract long years of imprisonment.
The current constitutional change reflects the social pressure on the authorities, and their growing difficulty in using the charge of "counter revolution" against dissidents. * Source: October Review Vol.26 Issue 1, 1999 Contact: October Review, G.P.O.Box 10144, Hong Kong email: or@earthling.net
International Viewpoint #312 June 1999 31
spawned wars and conflicts in our region