Associated Press

Beijing, March 14:

China took symbolic steps toward a more capitalist society today, amending its constitution to protect private property rights and formalising a former president’s once-unthinkable legacy - inviting entrepreneurs to join the Communist Party.

The figurehead legislature, approving directives ordered up by the party, also added to China’s constitution the first-ever mention of human rights. But the language said nothing about protecting free political expression - a key issue for government critics. The moves came on the 10th and final day of the 2,904-member parliament, the National People’s Congress.

The constitutional protection of private property was the first since the Communists took power in 1949. It was largely symbolic: China already has laws on private property, but with millions of people starting businesses and buying homes and stocks, entrepreneurs have lobbied for constitutional guarantees.

Entrepreneurs are a pivotal part of the Communist Party’s plans to open China’s economy and attract foreign investment - both to its booming eastern seaboard and, as premier Wen Jiabao emphasised at this year’s meeting - to the still-impoverished countryside.

The awkwardly named ‘Three Represents’ theory of inviting entrepreneurs into the Communist Party was the brainchild of former president Jiang Zemin, who retired last year.

Still a delegate and head of the country’s Central Military Commission, Jiang cast his ballot and then watched today as delegates enshrined his legacy in the constitution - albeit without his name, unlike the theories of his predecessors at China’s helm, Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping.

“These amendments will help build a sound legal foundation for developing the country,” said Wang Xiujun, a delegate from eastern China’s Shandong Province.