The draft amendment to China's Constitution, including expressions on private property protection and human rights, was submitted to the ongoing national legislature's annual session for deliberation yesterday afternoon.

The legislators began yesterday to consider whether to specify the inviolability of private property in the Constitution. If approved, the draft constitutional amendment would become what is widely described as "historic progress."

Wang Zhaoguo, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, briefed lawmakers on the draft constitutional amendment in Beijing yesterday.

The draft amendment suggests "legal private property is not to be encroached upon" and adds "the state should give compensation" to the current stipulation that "the state has the right to expropriate urban and rural land."

"It is a substantive breakthrough in the history of the People's Republic of China and that reminds me of the old days when we were proud of being penniless and devoting all possessions to the country," said Xia Bing, a lawyer who serves a Shanghai-based private law house.

"Being poor meant being revolutionary and pure of heart, and it was a shame to make profits and dream of a luxurious life at that time," recalled 60-year-old Zhang Yuying, a factory retiree from the northeastern province of Heilongjiang.

Consistent with the nation's economic boom is a change in the people's thinking from the concept: "It's shameful to be rich," to a new motto: "It's healthy to get rich through hard work in a lawful way."

To usher in a nationwide endeavor to "build a well-off society in an all-round way," the Chinese government has taken a more scientific and realistic approach to handling ideological issues, boosting economic development and creating a full-fledged legal system.

The draft constitutional amendment has drawn wide attention since the proposal was put forward by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China last year.

It will be the first time in New China that lawfully obtained capital goods and invisible capital such as intellectual property rights are protected by the Constitution, as is the case with living materials and properties such as estate and bank deposits.

The draft amendment has brought under the spotlight the newly-rich private entrepreneurs.

By the end of last November, the number of China's private enterprises hit 2.97 million with registered capital exceeding 334.7 billion yuan. The private sector now contributes half of China's national economic growth.

The constitutional amendment is also expected to enshrine human rights protection.

"The State respects and protects human rights," says the new expression to be added to the existing Constitution.

"It's a consistent principle adopted by the Party and the State to respect and protect human rights," said Wang, in his explanation to the lawmakers. "To write this principle into the Constitution will further provide a legal guarantee for its implementation."

The inclusion of human rights protection in the Constitution is also "conducive to the development of China's socialist human rights undertakings, as well as exchanges and cooperation with the international community in the human rights field," said Wang.

Other major points of the draft amendment include establishment of the guiding role of the "Three Represents" important thought in national political and social life, expressions of coordinated development of material civilization and political and cultural progress, incorporation of the term "builders of the socialist cause," and improvement of the land requisition system.

Amendments to the Chinese Constitution are to be proposed by the NPC Standing Committee or by more than one-fifth of all NPC deputies and need the support of two-thirds of all deputies.

Chinese lawmakers vote on the constitutional amendments on Sunday.