Although it was done in a "don't ask, don't tell" sort of way, China has enacted its first set of laws specifically protecting private property, which should give a real boost to the private sector that already drives 65 percent of the country's GDP.

The People's Republic of China was founded in 1949 on the principle that all property, aside from certain personal items, belonged to the state. Party chairman Mao Zedong declared that the changeover from individual to "socialist, collective ownership" in agriculture, industry and commerce "is bound to bring about a tremendous liberation of the productive forces." He had it exactly backward. China began decades of impoverishment that only began to end when the introduction of a market economy broke the shackles of socialism.

It was only in 2004 that China amended its constitution to recognize the people's right to private property. Even so, the government can't quite bring itself to part with the principle of all land belonging to the state. Instead, it offers long-term leases of up to 70 years whose rights can be traded.

Still, despite Mao's epic efforts at national brainwashing, a generation of entrepreneurial Chinese coming of age won't remember when property wasn't in some sense private.