BEIJING: Chinese president Xi Jinping pledged yesterday his country will keep following Marxism, as the world’s largest communist party prepares to mark the 200th birthday of Karl Marx, reports AFP.

China will continue to “hold high the great banner of Marxism” and the party will forever remain “guardians and practitioners” of the philosophy, Xi said during an official tribute at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People.

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. The legacy of the German revolutionary philosopher remains divisive in many parts of the world—including in his home country.

But in China, Marx’s 200th birth anniversary is seen as an opportunity to “restore the theoretical soul” of the Chinese people, according to party-mouthpiece People’s Daily.

The flurry of activity in the lead up to the big day, which falls on Saturday, includes a documentary series by China’s state broadcaster titled “Marx Is Right”. Beijing also gifted a larger-than-life bronze statue of the philosopher to his birthplace of Trier in western Germany, where his work remains controversial more than a quarter century after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

On Friday, Xi urged party members to cultivate the 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 US, and the wealth gap between urban elite and rural poor has widened in recent years.