The annual session of China’s National People’s Congress, now concluding, is not quite the ritual of absolute fealty it used to be. The decisions up for ratification included a major new property law that would give private property greater security by putting it on a legal par with public ownership. If the Communist leaders are willing to put aside ideology to continue their remarkable economic boom, why not take another essential step and make the congress a real legislature that listens to the unmuzzled views of real people? And follow that up with an independent — and uncorrupted — judiciary that can make sure that all of China’s citizens get the benefits of the rule of law.

An early draft of the property law provoked an acrimonious debate between ideologues, for whom property rights are heresy, and the growing moneyed class, which wants to protect its assets. It is also not clear whether the current version will address the expropriation of collectively owned land from peasants for development. The conflicts revealed by the property law are not simply growing pains of a red-hot economy to be resolved by shifting perks or property rights. They are the conflicts of a changing society that can be worked out only in full and open debate — in the press, on the Internet, in a real courtroom and by a real congress.