Something to Ponder About China's Privatization Efforts

While reporting on China's privatization and protection of private property efforts over the past few years, I have always viewed such efforts as positive moves.

Even though there are certain quarters in China who argue against such efforts, it is generally assumed that these were die-hard Marxists who would eventually fade away.

These people believed that if large amounts of state assets were transferred to individuals, China's socialist system would lose its economic foundation. And this would in turn threaten the very foundation of the Chinese Communist Party.

But one aspect which is seldom focused upon in discussing the protection of private property is its ripple legal effect.

For instance, as a Zhengzhou University president once pointed out, "what would stop people from claiming the property they lost to the state after Liberation? After the French Revolution, children of the nobility could still claim their property under Napoleon."

Would the claiming of private property open up a Pandora's box?