By Ramakrishnan

CounterCurrent.org /India

May 13, 2026 – The Fourth World Congress on Marxism, themed “Marxism and Human Civilization,” was held at Beijing University on October 11, 2025. The event gathered more than 400 domestic scholars and over 50 international experts from more than 20 countries. Many Chinese dignitaries and government officials also attended the event.  They shared their insights on how Marxism is shaping the world and its renewed meaning for human civilization.

The building of socialism, for a ‘community with a shared future for mankind’ is China’s solution to global crises, and is a major innovation of Marxism in the 21st century, Chinese scholars believe.  

This article in two parts draws attention to extensive and deep study of the history, evolution, and various schools of Marxism in several Chinese universities, and Academies.  In part-2 it gives glimpses of Chinese scholars studying various schools of  Marxism, from across the world, including Western Marxism in particular. It seeks to dispel wrong notions and misinformation, spread in particular by US and Western media, and some western Marxists, that Chinese Marxism is isolated, and that China is ostrich-like. 

There have been aggressive wars waged by imperialism, led by American super power and the Zionist Israel; there is a flare-up of extreme Right wing politics and fascism, also in developed countries; there have been media wars of misinformation and disinformation; and embedded journalism supplementing all reactionary forces. In such a condition, this story missed by many is important, and needs to be told.

 In particular, the Indian ruling classes, and their lap-dog media spreads misinformation that Marxism is outdated, dead and almost disappeared. That is particularly re-launched after the recent Assembly elections, particularly citing Bengal and Kerala, and the surrender of Maoists, preceded by Nepal developments. 

This is so even at a time America and President Trump create a scare that Marxism, communists and China are a threat, even in and for America.    

In 2004, the CPC,  concerned that the wrong Western values, such as liberalism and capitalism were surging into China and determined to preserve the right one, Marxism, announced a ‘‘Marx Project’’ to bolster research and teaching across the country.

A major highlight of the opening ceremony was the unveiling of the 10th anniversary achievements of the “Marxism Archive” project (Ma Zang), a significant academic initiative by Peking University.

The project has since published 23 volumes and nearly 15 million words of scholarly research on Chinese Marxist theory.

Notably, contemporary Chinese Marxism also researches ‘ecological Marxism’ as represented by John Bellamy Foster (Wang, Citation2020, pp. 26-35), ‘organic Marxism,’ and other schools.

Feminist Marxism is also widely studied. Contemporary Chinese Marxism mainly focuses on the feminist thoughts of Nancy Fraser and Judith Butler (Chen & Zhang, Citation2019, pp. 198-202).

The construction and continuous improvement of Marxist textbooks system is a big project going on in the universities of China.

Over the two-day event, scholars engaged in rigorous discussions in 11 sub-forums and 3 high-level sessions. Topics covered included “Marxism and the Modernity of Chinese Civilization,” “The Communist Party of China and Global Governance Order,” and “Socialism and Civilizational Diversity.”Participants shared their observations on Chinese-style modernization and its connection to Marxism.

The Congress is organized every three years in China by Peking University. Since its inception in 2015, it has been bringing together bright minds the world over to deepen the understanding of Marxist philosophy through free and lively discourses. This year marks the tenth anniversary of the World Congress on Marxism, which was established in 2015 and is held every three years.

The conference featured keynote speeches from notable scholars including Monthly Review editor John Bellamy Foster, Professor Emeritus at the University of Oregon; Tairako Tomonaga, Professor Emeritus at Hitotsubashi University; Yang Geng, former Vice President of Beijing Normal University; and Carlos Torres, Distinguished Professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). The sessions were moderated by Yang Haifeng, Dean of the School of Marxism at Peking University.

Foster delivered a keynote address on October 17, 2025, as part of the Opening Ceremony of the Fourth World Congress of Marxism.

See Eco-Marxism and the Reconstruction of Materialist Dialectics (CC 01/05/2026)

https://countercurrents.org/2026/05/eco-marxism-and-the-reconstruction-of-materialist-dialectics

Professor Radhika Desai Department of Political Studies, University of Manitoba said: “A lot of people think that China’s modernization is disconnected from Marxism because Marxism expects revolution to take place. I believe this is a misunderstanding. China’s modernization is very deeply connected with Marxism. Indeed, China’s modernization demonstrates the truth of Marxism.”

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‘It is CPC, not CCP as the western media reports’  

 As a friendly reminder, a Xinhua editorial said:  China’s ruling party is called Communist Party of China (CPC), not Chinese Communist Party (CCP) as western press and academia often frames it as.

Far from being a simple confusion, China’s Communist Party takes its name out of the internationalist approach set by the Comintern back in the day. From Terms of Admission into Communist International, as adopted by the First Congress of the Communist International:

18 – In view of the foregoing, parties wishing to join the Communist International must change their name. Any party seeking affiliation must call itself the Communist Party of the country in question (Section of the Third, Communist International). The question of a party’s name is not merely a formality, but a matter of major political importance. The Communist International has declared a resolute war on the bourgeois world and all yellow Social-Democratic parties. The difference between the Communist parties and the old and official “Social-Democratic”, or “socialist”, parties, which have betrayed the banner of the working class, must be made absolutely clear to every rank-and-file worker.

Similarly, the adoption of a wrong name to refer to the CPC consists of a double edged sword: on the one hand, it seeks to reduce the ideological basis behind the party’s name to a more ethno-centric view of said organization and, on the other hand, it seeks to assert authority over it by attempting to externally draw the conditions and parameters on which it provides the CPC recognition.

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The number of Marxist study institutions in Chinese universities increased from 100 to more than 1,400

After the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, CPC  successively established institutions with similar names such as “Marxism-Leninism Teaching and Research Section”, “Marxism–Leninism Teaching and Research Section”, “Marxism-Leninism Basics Teaching and Research Section”, “Chinese Revolution History Teaching and Research Section” in major universities. These institutions later evolved into institutions with similar names such as “Institute of the History of the Development of Marxism–Leninism”, “Institute of Marxist Theory Education”, “Department of CCP History”, “Ideological and Political College”, “Ideological and Political Education College”, and “Ideological and Political Theory College”.

In 1992, Peking University established the first “School of Marxism” in China, namely the School of Marxism at Peking University. In 1996, the School of Marxism at Renmin University of China was established, becoming the second School of Marxism. After 2003, Hunan University, Minzu University of China, Jishou University, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, Jilin University and other universities established Schools of Marxism.  As of 2007, 25 Schools of Marxism had been established in universities across China.

In 2008, the School of Marxism at Tsinghua University and the School of Marxism at Beijing Normal University were established. In 2009, the School of Marxism at Shaanxi Normal University was established. In 2015, the School of Marxism at Sichuan University was established.^[4]

By the end of 2014, there were 200 schools of Marxism established in universities across the country, and by the end of 2016, the number had exceeded 400.

Starting from 2016, national key Marxist colleges were established in batches. From 2015 to 2025, the number of Marxist study institutions in Chinese universities increased from 100 to more than 1,400.  (Wikipedia)

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“ We need to bring up a new generation of Marxists…and China’s universities  can be the center of world Marxist education” : Prof Alexander Buzgalin

“Under the leadership of the CPC, China has embarked on the path of socialism and made great achievements. I think China has found a new development model and benefited from it,” said Alexander Buzgalin, an economist and professor at Moscow State University. He stressed: “We also need to bring up a new generation of Marxists…I think that China can be the center of world Marxist education, and support not only students in China, but also the creation of Marxist centers around the world. “

Through continuous reform, China has improved people’s lives, promoted more efficient social and economic development, and set the goal of realizing a moderately prosperous society, said Khubiev Kaisyn Azretovich, a political economy professor at Moscow State University.

“I think the Chinese Communists have foresight and vision,” said Andrea Catone, editor-in-chief of the Italian Communist journal Marx Ventuno. “They make a plan that is oriented to the future and takes into consideration the all-round development of all the people and the common welfare of mankind.“

Bearing in mind the various crises facing the world, the question arises whether Marxism can guide mankind to a better future. In particular, can the path taken by China provide more possibilities for the development of human civilization? Participants shared their insights.

According to Jiang, socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era has blazed a path of modernization unprecedented in human history and provided a new option for developing countries in pursuing modernization.

The building of a community with a shared future for mankind is China’s solution to global crises, and is a major innovation of Marxism in the 21st century, he said.

“Although we are faced with many new problems today, the basic principles of Marxism, such as historical materialism and the position of the people, have an unfading value,” said Tao Wenzhao, deputy dean of the School of Marxism Studies at Renmin University of China.

The congress reaffirmed its commitment to fostering global dialogue and collaboration in Marxist thought, as well as advancing the understanding of socialism in the modern world.

Nearly 300 global Marxist scholars attended the third World Congress in July, 2021. They were from more than 20 countries and regions, including the United States, Britain, France, Russia, Japan and India.  That was the centenary year for the CPC. (Continued)