Xi Jinping swears by Marxism to make China first modern socialist country

Poised for record third five-year term and perhaps for life, Chinese President Xi Jinping's high-voltage Marxist rhetoric on Sunday with a vow to make China a modern socialist country has raised hackles at home and abroad that the Communist giant, which for decades relegated the ideology to the background, could be taking the turn to the extreme left.

"From this day forward, the central task of the Communist Party of China (CPC) will be to lead the Chinese people of all ethnic groups in a concerted effort to realise the Second Centenary Goal of building China into a great modern socialist country in all respects and to advance the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation on all fronts through a Chinese path to modernisation," Xi said in his marathon speech at the key Congress of the party on Sunday.

"Only by taking root in the rich historical and cultural soil of the country and the nation the truth of Marxism flourish here," he told the over 2,300 delegates of the week-long 20th Congress,