China is in transition.
When we talk about communism/socialism/capitalism they involve both issues of ownership and how representation is selected.
Despite the myth, communist systems are democratic in terms of representational selection. They are voted into their position by a majority.
True, China basically voted to give life tenure to President Jinping.
Many US persons, especially, seem to have trouble understanding that.
An example:
Finland is a constitutional parliamentary socialist democracy.
The constitution sets out the rules for the function of state
All political representatives, from Parliament to the President are elected democratically by the people.
The socialist aspect occurs in that the state owns or has majority stake in many municipal systems which all of society needs, such as healthcare, roads, ports, railways, airports and domestic airline, water, energy, telecommunications etc.
This ownership waxes and wanes.
The difference between capitalism and socialism, is whether its private or state owned.
The difference between socialism and communism, is the extent of state ownership (state in the communist system, being a representative of the public, in ownership of that).
When the USSR fell, huge stacks of previously state owned equity became privatised, ie: Russia became a capitalist state, at least in part.