Alternative Property Systems for China (Comments AND Notes) (Report‪)‬

When Deng Xiaoping took over the leadership of the People's Republic of China in 1980, he changed the course of the nation. He replaced Mao Zedong's emphasis on equality with an emphasis on profits. Deng's favourite slogans included: "to get rich is glorious", "some will get rich before others" and "whatever makes profits is good for China". Deng, and the leaders who have followed Deng, have progressively moved China from a socialist system towards a capitalist system. During the post-Mao years, progressively longer leases have been offered to those who use land. However, as of June 2010, China had not completely embraced a capitalist property system. The current property system in China is complicated by the two categories used under Mao: a) the government "owned" the property of all state-owned enterprises (SOEs, most of urban China fits under this type of ownership); and b) the people in the Maoist communes (not the government) owned the property used by the communes. This is further complicated by the pockets of communal land in the midst of cities.