BEIJING - China's National People's Congress is set to amend its constitution to include the protection of private property as well as former president Jiang Zemin's ideas on the role of the Communist Party in a more business-oriented China.

The official Xinhua news agency reported yesterday that a two-week meeting of the People's Congress, which was scheduled to start on March 5, would introduce Jiang's Three Represents Theory into the constitution.

Jiang's theory states that the Communist Party has to represent the "development trend if China's advanced productive forces" are to be promoted, as well as the interests of the overwhelming majority of the Chinese people.

The theory is evidence of a growing emphasis on private property and a move towards a more capitalist-style economy. It puts the private assets of Chinese citizens on an equal footing with public property, which means they are "not to be violated".

The former president's theory would be included alongside Marxism-Leninism, Mao Tsetung's revolutionary principles and former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping's ideas on the socialist market economy in a move that would have wide-reaching consequences, according to the newspaper.

The official adoption of Jiang's principles, which had previously been included into the constitution of the Chinese Communist Party, also shows the enduring influence of the former president, who was succeeded by Hu Jintao in March this year.

Private businessmen welcomed the coming constitutional amendment which they said would remove problems and strengthen the confidence of investors, according to Xinhua.

"Constitutional revisions are meant to regularise the valuable experience of China's reforms and opening up, and to bring it in line with the common ideology of the nation," said Pang Xianzhi, a constitutional expert of the Communist Party.

China promulgated its first constitution in 1954. The existing constitution was formulated in 1982 and amended in 1988, 1993, and 1999. The country has witnessed rapid socioeconomic progress since the last constitutional review.

During the March assembly, the congress is scheduled to hear China's new prime minister, Wen Jiabao, and formally accept the budget.

Business Day 29 December 2003