🚀 go-pugleaf

In March 2007:

The annual two-week session of the National People's Congress-China's
nominal parliament-ended Friday with characteristic efficiency. The 3,000
delegates to what is effectively the legislative arm of the ruling Communist
Party took less than a minute to vote in a much ballyhooed new property law,
according to reports in state-controlled media.

"All land in China is, in any case, owned by the state, and individuals can
only claim right to a 70-year lease on buildings-something the new law won't
change."

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1599932,00.html

Although it marks an important step in the country's slow metamorphosis from
Leninist monolith into a uniquely Chinese amalgam of authoritarian socialism
and chaotic capitalism, the travails required to secure passage of the new
law underline the difficulties China's rulers face as they attempt to
fashion a coherent legal and financial system for the country. It has taken
13 years and eight readings (only three are technically-and in most cases,
practically-required) to get the bill successfully passed. It was originally
scheduled to pass last year, but was dropped after Party conservatives
(diehard Maoists who felt that the old socialist ideals were being expunged
in an unseemly stampede to make money) started a signature campaign against
it, protesting that it would undermine the country's socialist system.

In fact, of course, reforming the old socialist system is exactly the point
of the law, individual property rights being a core tenet of a functioning
capitalist economy.

http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/sowell121800.asp
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0465016146/

A bankrupt Chinese company has no property collateral - completely
worthless. Investors beware!

China; eggs were 30% more expensive year on year last month...
The price of meat was up 15.4%...
...the government estimates that 12 million job vacancies will be created
this year, meaning that there will be 12 million newly unemployed.

What does that mean for a Communist China?
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/commandingheights/

What is China's future? View "The Power of Choice"
http://www.ideachannel.tv/
The TV program that had the greatest influence upon Poland during Communist
occupation.

...bankrupt State Owned Enterprizes transformed into shareholding companies
still owed former workers a total of 2.05 billion Yuan in back pay and 700
million Yuan of compensation as of June last year. Nu said 28 million SOE
workers had been laid off since 1998, while 2 million were still jobless and
an additional 3 million workers would be laid off from state firms in the
next two years. A quarter of the workers were not covered by pension and
medical insurance schemes, which were part of their benefit packages before
they were sacked. In a union survey, 700 out of 1,433 of the collective
enterprises in Liaoning had been unable to pay salaries for more than a
year. And 43 per cent of the 665,000 workers were not covered by pensions,
while more than 90 per cent lacked medical insurance.

...labour conflicts in foreign enterprises had risen drastically because
salaries were low, many workers had long hours, and some were even
physically punished for wrongdoings. He called for unions to be set up in
foreign enterprises, while the companies oppose this claiming it would
limited their working freedom.  In fact, Public authorities have long been
"complicit" in the bad working conditions of foreign enterprises, in order
to attract foreign investment in the country.

China attracted US$ 9.71 billion in foreign direct investment over the first
two months of this year, up 13 per cent from a year earlier.

...the recent bull market had only been supported by a rise in the value of
a batch of blue chips rather than an improvement in the quality of listed
companies; only about 30% of the more than 1,300 listed firms had investment
value.

Something stinking in Beijing! http://www.mises.org/TRTS.htm