President Xi Jinping on Tuesday called for upholding Marxism as the guiding ideology and exploring theoretical innovations based on practice.
Xi made the remarks while addressing a gathering marking the 40th anniversary of the reform and opening-up.
The practices over the past 40 years have shown that innovation is the lifeline of reform and opening-up, Xi said.
Xi called for efforts to base the Party's theory on reality and "answer the questions of our times and of the people" in a timely manner.
"We must update and popularize Marxism in the context of a modern day China, and make new breakthroughs in developing Marxism," Xi said.
