#1: China Magazine Is Pulled As Property Law Looms － Andrew Bats (3211 reads) 作者: ILoveNewYork, 时间: 2007-3-09 周五, 13:44 — 作者：ILoveNewYork 在 海归商务 发贴, 来自【海归网】 http://www.haiguinet.com
China Magazine Is Pulled As Property Law Looms － Andrew Batson, Geoffrey Fowler and Juying Qin
From WSJ
A landmark proposal to protect private property was formally introduced into China's legislature amid continuing controversy, and in one possible sign of the legislation's sensitivity, the latest issue of an influential Chinese business magazine that covered it was pulled earlier this week.
It wasn't immediately clear who blocked the issue of Caijing -- a move that came during one of the busiest periods in China's political calendar -- or why. But according to a person familiar with the situation, the issue included articles, among others, on the bankruptcy of a government-controlled brokerage firm and on the piece of property-rights legislation, which has drawn vocal criticism.
A revised edition of the biweekly, which is normally distributed on Mondays, is to hit newsstands Friday, according to the person. Thursday evening, Caijing's Web site displayed an issue dated this week with a cover story about the Chinese stock market's ups and downs and a table of contents that doesn't mention the articles about the property legislation or the brokerage firm.
Hu Shuli, Caijing's editor, wasn't available to comment. A phone call to China's press regulator, the General Administration of Press and Publication, wasn't answered Thursday evening.
In the months leading up to the annual session of the National People's Congress, which opened this week, the government has been carefully managing public discussion of the proposed property-rights law, which would give private property the same legal protections as state property. Critics of the law, mainly Marxist academics and retired officials, argue that it is incompatible with China's socialist ideology. They fear that it could entrench inequalities of wealth and encourage the privatization of state enterprises.
As Wang Zhaoguo, vice chairman of the standing committee of the National People's Congress, introduced the proposed property-rights law to the legislature, he said in a speech that China's people "urgently require effective protection of their own lawful property accumulated through hard work." He emphasized that the draft law would strengthen protections for state property as well. (See related article1.)
Also introduced at the session was a proposed law to set a single, 25% tax rate for both foreign-financed and Chinese companies. Chinese firms had been paying much higher tax than their foreign counterparts.
China's leadership usually tries to ensure consensus among party members before pressing forward with controversial changes, and heated debate over an earlier draft of the property law at last year's meeting led to it being delayed and changed. By submitting the law for a formal vote this year, the leadership signaled that the debate has been closed and that it was time for critics within the party to fall into line.
The politics behind the property legislation might have led to the Caijing issue's withdrawal. "There are many objecting voices from the Congress, and the way it has been enacted is very controversial. The government might worry that too much discussion among people would create more tension," said Zhan Jiang, dean of the department of journalism and communications at the China Youth University for Political Sciences.
Under President Hu Jintao, China has tightened some restrictions on the press and on Internet content. "The whole environment is more complicated now," said Mr. Zhan.
But it is also possible that the coverage of the brokerage firm's bankruptcy, or some other content, caused the issue to be blocked. Mr. Zhan said he had no direct knowledge of Caijing's situation.
Since 2005, Caijing's publisher, SEEC Media Group Ltd., has published some content by Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal.
Caijing has a reputation for aggressive investigative reporting, particularly about corruption in Chinese businesses. It has been censored at least once, in 2003, following China's epidemic of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, which the magazine had helped to expose.
