Perfecting Laws to Fully Protect Property Rights

Abstract

No market economy runs well without protection by law. The 4th Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CCCPC) defined the socialist market economy as a rule-of-law economy, and proposed to “improve the laws to protect property rights that [were] impartial at the core, strengthen protection of the properties owned by various economic organizations with various forms of ownership and by natural persons, eradicate the laws and regulations that [violated] the principles of justice; to initiate new regulations to protect property rights that [met] the demands of the various forms to materialize public ownership, strengthen protection of the property rights and operational rights of state- and collectively-owned assets as well as the property rights of various enterprise legal persons; to offer state umbrella for enterprises to exert their property rights as legal persons and to operate autonomously, to be responsible for losses and profits, and to refuse any unlawful demand made by any organization or person.” Regulating individuals, enterprises and the government with respect of their behaviors on the market through law making and law enforcement creates a friendly environment of laws and institutions for the market to exert its decisive impact on resource allocation, which ensures that the socialist market economy will be continuously perfected.