Nearly 90 percent of Chinese youth nationwide said they endorse Marxism, according to a survey conducted by China Youth Daily for the 100th anniversary of the May Fourth Movement. 

Eighty-nine percent of the respondents born after 2000 endorse Marxism, higher than those born during the 1980s and 1990s, the China Youth Daily reported Friday. 

A total of 10,393 people with an average age of 27 from 31 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions participated in the online survey from April 19 to 29, ahead of the 100th anniversary of the May Fourth Movement. 

On the most important historical asset of the May Fourth Movement, about 70 percent said the movement marked the beginning of China's youth movement, and about 61 percent said it boosted the spread of Marxism in China.

The May Fourth Movement started with mass student protests on May 4, 1919 against the government's weak response to the Treaty of Versailles that imposed unfair treatment on China and undermined the country's sovereignty after World War I, according to the Xinhua News Agency. Two years later, the Communist Party of China (CPC) was founded. After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, May 4 was formally designated as China's Youth Day.

Among the major news events in 2019, about 54 percent of the respondents paid attention to the 100th anniversary of the May Fourth Movement, with nearly 60 percent of them born after 2000. 

Sun Hongyan, director of the childhood research institute at the China Youth and Children Research Center, told the China Youth Daily that young people usually pay more attention to issues affecting their peers, and in recent years, the youth have greater confidence in the development of the country, and they are more confident, independent and stronger than previous generations. 

That's because China's policy of helping young people develop is improving, Sun said.

Global Times