Warmish Take. China is not a communist country. It's not close, not even "on a path towards" it. It is just not communist in any way. It might be fair to say it is a type of socialist capitalism, or State Capitalism, or even just a form of capitalism, but it makes no sense to call it communism.
Ok, but there's this: "The Communist Party of China (CPC), commonly known as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is the founding and ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC)." Wikipedia
Hi cousin. Yes. That is part of my point everyone just accepts that they are communist regardless of the obvious reality that by definition they are no such thing. They are not state-less or money-less, nor on any even pretended path towards such. They're more Authoritarian Socialist Capitalism.
They call themselves Communist. So there's that.
And Isreal (The apartheid ethno-state) is called the one lone example of democracy in the middle east. and Trump call's himself lots of things but not a Fascist, and yet that is what he is. Funny how the world seems full of lying liars that lie about everything including the meaning of words. :-)