The Road to Market Economy

• Picture from Economist China passes new law on property. I was only able to find a 2005 draft (in Chinese) of it on the web, and here is the official explanation (in English) of the law. It was originally to be stamped in March 2005, but Gong Xiantian, a professor from Beijing University, published an open letter accusing the new law "in violation of the constitution" and "against the principles of socialism"(in Chinese), causing the one year delay. The letter is an interesting read, shows you how the contradictions in the current state of China have shadowed its path to market economy. Coincidentally, I was reading an economics text book recently, where property rights, along with monetary exchange (i.e market price), is cited as the most important ingredients of a free market economy.