But personally I reject the historical materialism aspect of Marxism.
What do you mean by materialism ?
Looks like China is representing a new face of Communism.
China doesn't have Communism at all. It is as Capitalist as USA.
Firstly, below is the simple Google result for "Communism" :
Communism is a philosophical, social, political and economic ideology and movement whose ultimate goal is the establishment of a communist society, namely a socioeconomic order structured upon the ideas of common ownership of the means of production and the absence of social classes, money and the state.
Wikipedia
Now to describe China :
1. China hasn't overthrown the State and brought the governance of the People i.e. Direct Democracy. If USA is a two-party Capitalist dictatorship China is a one-party Capitalist dictatorship with no say of the People.
2. The traditional money system, existent for thousands of years, continues in China. There exist the stock exchanges in Shanghai and Shenzhen where Chinese can gamble, lose money and the Chinese system allows the losers to suicide by jumping into steel furnaces and off buildings. In China exist economic classes ( rich, middle, poor ). There are billionaires who can have anything they desire while at the same time there are poor who desperately want to get into the middle class and there are the middle class who cannot afford high-quality health care in China so have to, or used to until the recent hostilities, go to India to avail of India's medical tourism. Funny thing is that the official Chinese currency is called "Renminbi" or People's Currency as if China is a Socialist or Communist society.
3. Workers are not respected. In fact they are oppressed, including the middle class which has to deal with the 996 Culture where the workers are required to work from 9 AM to 9 PM 6 days a week. Work till exhaustion. Factory and mining workers are not better off either. In fact these workers are not given due rights like the right to join worker unions and many working outside China are confiscated of their passports and threatened to be left to be stranded or die if they protest against some unjust work condition.
There must be more things about China which I am unable to write now but even from the Google result, in no way is China a Communist country.
We are the Communist Party, but China is only a socialist country, not a communist country. Countries in which the Communist Party is in power do not have to practice communism.
Also, I don't think the Soviets are more qualified than the Chinese to decide what communism is.
1. In what way is China a Socialist country ? See above reply to MultaniGuy.
2. Well, the Soviets at least presented a platform for Communist and Socialist movements and countries of the world to work and evolve. China hasn't done that. Take Afghanistan. Instead of China supporting the left-wing movement the Solidarity Party of Afghanistan to gain governance power, China is working closely with the right-wing, oppressive and regressive Taliban.
In fact, the PRC, or CCP, its political basis is the close alliance between Chinese left-wing Communists and right-wing nationalists
The Chinese nationalists seem to have subdued the Communists.
