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BEIJING (AP) - China's leaders are displaying renewed confidence in their ability to control political debate, putting to a vote a toughly contested law on property rights at this year's session of the national legislature. The proposed property rights law and an uncontroversial corporate tax bill are the only pieces of legislation before the National People's Congress in its 12-day session that opens Monday. The two measures are all but certain to pass, legal scholars and Chinese political watchers said.
Ordinary Chinese, emboldened by economic and social changes, feel increasingly free to voice opinions, but the certainty about the votes says much about change in a political system controlled by the Communist Party.
Dominated by the party, the congress is largely powerless. Still, a year ago, an angry campaign by conservative Communists — amplified by fiery Internet postings — portrayed the property bill as a sellout of popular interests to a corrupt business elite. Leaders were forced to scuttle plans to put the measure before the congress.
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