China's controversial draft property law, a sweeping bill designed to protect both public and private ownership, is about to be submitted to the country's top legislature for the sixth time.

The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) will convene next Friday for a five-day regular legislative session. Sources close to the NPC on Friday said the draft property law would be a key issue on the agenda.

The draft was first submitted to the legislature in 2002 and has gone through a rare fifth reading. It was withdrawn from the NPC full session in March amid worries that the draft, the country's first specific law to protect private ownership, could undermine the legal foundation of China's socialist system.

But opposition faded after drafters revised the fifth version in August to install state ownership at the heart of the economic system.

Drafters said that, in the Chinese context, the primary concern in making a property law is to comprehensively and accurately reflect China's economic system in which public ownership plays a dominant role and diverse forms of ownership develop side by side

Lawmakers on the NPC Standing Committee appeared to have achieved an ideological consensus on the draft, and the debate moved on to specific issues such as the ownership of parking spaces, the transfer of rural housing, and the law's coverage of rivers and oceans.

During the process lawmakers have collected more than 15,000 suggestions from the general public, who have showed enormous interest in the draft law.

It is hoped that the marathon legislative process will end next March with a vote by the full NPC session.

The upcoming legislative session will continue to discuss draft anti-money laundering law, draft amendment to law on protection of the minors and draft farmers' cooperatives law.

The draft amendment to organic law on the people's courts and the draft amendment to the law on banking regulation and supervision will be submitted to the coming 24th session of NPC Standing Committee for first read.

The legislature will also discuss and ratify the Occupational Safety and Health Convention 1981, the bilateral agreement on cooperation in fighting terrorism, separatism and extremism between China and Turkmenistan, Treaty between China and Australia on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters, the Treaty of Good-Neighborliness and Friendly Cooperation Between China and Afghanistan and Treaty on Extradition between China and Azerbaijan.

The agenda of the 24th session of the 10th NPC Standing Committee was decided on Friday's meeting of NPC Standing Committee's chairman and vice-chairpersons, which was presided over by top legislator Wu Bangguo.

Source: Xinhua