(Photo: people.cn)

China is commemorating the 200th anniversary of the birth of Karl Marx with events including streaming documentaries as Chinese experts declared that Marx's theory of socialism has been successfully practiced and developed in China. 

Chinese President Xi Jinping will attend a conference to mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of  Marx, scheduled to be held on Friday morning. 

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, will deliver a speech at the conference to be held in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

Born on May 5, 1818, Marx was largely ignored by scholars in his own lifetime, but his social, economic and political ideas gained rapid acceptance after his death in 1883.

China Central Television (CCTV) will broadcast Imperishable Marx, a two-episode documentary, from Thursday to Friday. The documentary will cover Marx's experience writing the Communist Manifesto and Das Kapital with Frederick Engels.

The publicity department of the Communist Party of China and Jiangsu TV, the official television of East China's Jiangsu Province, have produced a five-episode program, Marx Is Right, which will introduce Marx's life story and theoretical contribution. It began broadcasting April 27 on CCTV and Jiangsu TV.

The program has invited participation of Chinese university students and Marxist scholars to enlighten and educate youth through animation, poetry reading, discussions and question and answer sessions on Marxism's meaning for China.

Experts said that socialism with Chinese characteristics was developing Marxism in the 21st century. 

"Actually Marx already predicted that there could be a kind of socialism which combined socialist principles with the achievements of Western capitalist civilizations but he didn't say how this kind of socialism would work since there was no evidence available during his lifetime," Su Wei, a professor at the Party School of the Chongqing Party Committee, told the Global Times. Socialism with Chinese characteristics has emerged and is running well, which is very similar to Marx's prediction, Su said. 

"By making China prosperous and developed, socialism with Chinese characteristics proves Marx's prediction and it's also developing and updating Marxism in the 21st century."

Marxism is not a dead theory, and it needs to be developed and innovated, said Hao Lixin, dean of the school of Marxism at Renmin University of China in Beijing. 

"The fundamental methodologies and theories of Marxism should be insisted upon, but some conclusions should be adjusted and improved with ongoing practice," he said.

Chinese internet users discussed Marx and Marxism online. 

"China's development does not merely rely on believing in one or two theories. China believes in practice and using practice to verify and improve the theories," internet user Sufeng liyanhan posted on guancha.com, a Chinese news portal website. That was why China could achieve so many goals, the user noted.