Comment by dragonwriter
2 years ago
> China isn't a communist country, it's first and foremost authoritarian.
So are all “communist” countries. Communism (either Marxist or more generally) as a whole isn’t authoritarian, but all “communist” countries are products of Leninism or its derivatives, which definitely are, fundamentally, authoritarian.
That communism always ended up in authoritarian regimes isn't relevant to what I'm referring to. We generally oppose communism to say capitalism or liberalism for organising the economy and authoritarianism to democracy for organising governance.
There is a few essential properties of a "communist" system that modern China doesn't have. Most of the capital is privately owned, the social safety net is very poor, etc.