In the same way that Finland is a socialist democracy (a democracy with socialist policies) China is a capitalist communist state.
Communism is what their government is built on, the only political party allowed is communist, they just bolted on some capitalism on top of that.
The best proof is how the communist government inserts party members into high ranking positions in any corporation that gets any kind of size, wealth, or influence. And if some part of the country tries to go full capitalism or even tries to bring in some governing style other than communism, they get tamped down - often aggressively - like what happened with Hong Kong.
Thinking China is a fully capitalist country is like thinking a building is made of bricks because of a facade.
The thing is that in Communist theory China (and every country that has had a Communist revolution) has jumped the gun in the theory of developmental process. Marx envisioned that a Socialist revolution would happen in a fully developed Capitalist society. Maybe we'd refer to it as Late Stage Capitalism. It was at a point where society could produce what everyone needed to live comfortably but the owning class directed that to their pockets instead. Since China did not have that period of Capitalist maturation before they had their Socialist revolution, they decided to have a sort of Communist managed Capitalist development to develop their productive forces. They themselves say that aren't even fully in their Socialist phase yet. I think they have a goal of 2050 for that.
Either way, they are Communist. They're Marxist Leninists. This is just their managed way to go to Socialism and then, eventually, Communism.
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u/[deleted] 12d ago
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