China will continue to 'hold high the great banner of Marxism', Xi says

BEIJING: China will continue to "hold high the great banner of Marxism" and its communist party will forever remain "guardians and practitioners" of the philosophy, President Xi Jinping said Friday at an event to mark the 200th birth anniversary of Karl Marx.
Marxism still holds sway in China, despite decades of market-driven growth that has made it the second largest economy in the world.
Students start learning the theories of Marx and Lenin in middle school, and civil servants — even journalists in state-run media — have to take mandatory courses in Marxist theory to secure promotions.
Xi hailed the 19th-century German philosopher as "the revolutionary tutor of the proletariat and working people all over the world ... and the greatest thinker of modern times".
The event was held at the Great Hall of the People, which was packed with government officials, military personnel and some of China's top Marxist thinkers.
Banners promoting "socialism with Chinese characteristics" — a Chinese interpretation of Marxist-Leninist theories with a dash of nationalism — have sprouted in cities and villages after Xi took the reins of the communist party in 2012.
He has repeatedly urged party members to "go back to the roots of Marxism".
On Friday, Xi told them to make it a habit of reading Marxist classics and regard it as a "way of life" and "spiritual pursuit".
China is the largest self-identified socialist country since the fall of the Soviet Union, and state-owned companies continue to monopolise key economic sectors.
But it is also home to over 370 billionaires, only second to the United States, and the wealth gap between the urban elite and the rural poor has widened in recent years.
The flurry of celebrations in China leading up to Marx's birthday on May 5 dovetail with Xi's attempts to expand the party's influence as he pushes through sweeping changes in the political system and military, and consolidates power after the removal of presidential term limits. — AFP