News Report: NPC May Pass China's New Property Law in June 2005

The NPC Standing Committee is scheduled to give China's draft Property Law another reading in June 2005, the Beijing News reported on March 5. The article suggests that numerous committee members are anxious to pass the law. Wang Liming, one of the law’s drafters, has reportedly stated that this is very likely to happen at the mid-year Standing Committee meeting. In 2004, the China Daily reported that the law was slated for passage at this month’s NPC session.

The draft Property Law covers both personal and real property and sets out the basic rights and obligations of property owners. According to Wang, the Property Law is one part of a longer Civil Code that is currently under discussion in China. Experts consider passage of the Property Law portion of the Civil Code to be urgent, however, because it provides a necessary legal framework for realizing principles on private property that were added to the PRC Constitution in March 2004. As such, the NPC Standing Committee is deliberating the Property Law separately. For a review of the draft Property Law published in October 2004, click here.