Workers of the world yawn: Marxism must find answers to today's social woes, or become irrelevant PLA general warns

Chinese Marxist researchers must find answers to contemporary social woes, or the political and economic philosophy that changed the world would become irrelevant to today's public, a PLA general has warned.

General Liu Yazhou sounded his concerns to hundreds of scholars gathered for the first World Congress on Marxism at Peking University yesterday. .

"[The researchers'] inability to identify and solve social problems have … blocked the innovative development of Marxism in China", Wu Jieming, a deputy political commissar at National Defence University, read in speech on behalf of Liu.

Liu is the political commissar at the university. His speech went on to say that while Marxism proved to be a "historical and scientific" choice for the Chinese people and remained vital, it was necessary to innovate and expand its theoritical basis to avoid being marginalised.

"It is not easy for a theory to be refuted by another theory, but it could be easily defeated by social problems," Wu said. "But if a theory fails to address social concerns, then society will no longer need it."

One problem that Marxists needed to answer, according to Liu Wei, a vice-president of Peking University, was how to make the market-based economy work effectively under public ownership - as opposed to private ownership in capitalism. The answer could determine the success or failure of mainland's economic reforms, Liu said.