Well... China is still communist. I don't mean like a fully communist economy, in the idealist sense, which never existed anywhere. Communism is all about power. The symbols and idealism are just a neat story to justify the power - which is exactly the same as here, the narrative justifies the power. There's still hammer and sickle signs in every city, still ridiculous anti western/anti imperialist propaganda on posters and in schools, and the supposedly free market isn't free at all - any company over a certain size must employ at least one member of the party to oversee the company, appointed by the local party and at the company's expense, and businesses are arbitrarily shut down pretty regularly. 100% of all power is in the party's hands, and they make sure everyone knows it.

But I digress... 

Communism can't survive without an external capitalism to feed it.