No fewer than 64 CPPCC delegates argued that such firms should be put on a par with their state-owned counterparts.
However Olympic hurdler Liu Xiang's absence again from the CPPCC session is "arousing dissatisfaction among the online population", Xinhua reports.
Retired basketball star Yao Ming, who is attending his first CPPCC session, says the market should support popular sports like tennis, basketball and football.
The Beijing News also welcomes calls by CPPCC and NPC deputies to quit smoking and remove ashtrays from meeting halls or at least smoke outside.
Mr Liu has asked for leave - due to sporting commitments or injury treatment - in five annual CPPCC sessions over the past six years, the agency notes.
There was the usual sprinkling of celebrities, such as internationally famed actress Gong Li, attending the concurrent Chinese People's Consultative Conference (CPPCC), and the controversial sports coach Ma Junren.
Since the CPPCC's annual session began on 3 March, about one-tenth of roughly 5, 000 proposals submitted concern environmental protection, including plans to tackle severely polluted groundwater, China Daily reports.
Turning back to the CPPCC's opening session, Western-style inauguration ceremonies for new leaders and family planning restrictions for the less educated were among the "eye-popping proposals" raised on Sunday, South China Morning Post says.
Apple Daily says outgoing CPPCC chairman Jia Qinglin's call for upholding the leadership of the Communist Party in his final work report "proves once again that the CPPCC is a flower pot" - an ornamental body of little substance.
Beijing Times says the annual "two sessions" of the NPC and Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), a national advisory body, next week will cut back on conference expenses and require senior delegates to take coaches rather than private cars.
Apple Daily, one of Hong Kong's top-selling tabloids and an outspoken critic of the Communist Party, says the new leadership's vow not to copy Western political models shows the NPC is still a Soviet-style "rubber stamp" and the CPPCC is an ornamental but essentially useless "flower pot".
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