can you now buy (not lease; buy) land in china? did they drop the 5 year central planning system when it comes to their economic policy? are there any other political parties other than ccp? do civil rights mean anything, don't they control the ideology, courts, media, etc...
while china has a much more modern approach than the country i grew up in, especially when it comes to economic development and innovation, the possibility and even encouragement of private entrepreneurship, and there's of course a huge wealth inequality within the country, much bigger than it was in the eastern communist block before the 90s, it's still a communist regime to the core
The reforms in China can be viewed in the context of reformism within the socialist bloc, but also in the context of regional state-led export-oriented (earlier ISI) capitalist development that had already been followed by the likes of Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, and Singapore (both SK and Taiwan also had 5-year plans).
The reforms have transformed China from a centrally planned economy to a
market led economy and reestablished the capitalist mode of production. Collectivization was reversed, the socialist welfare system eroded, labor commodified and private property rights established. The "opening up" element of the reforms led to integration with the global capitalist system as a massive pool of cheap and educated labor for exploitation (the eastern bloc after its collapse
served a similar function for the EU). The private sector now represents 90% of all enterprises, employs around 80% of the workforce and is the driver of the state’s profit-focused growth targets, while the Three Represents under Jiang formally opened CCP membership to capitalists and bourgeois elements on a class collaborationist line. Public ownership over natural resources (including land) and SOEs is nominal. Class divisions and as you mentioned inequality have risen sharply, especially along regional and rural-urban lines.
Post-reform China is objectively capitalist and the primary objective of the CCP is capitalist growth. The legitimacy of the CCP's rule is in turn
tied to a continued improvement in the standard of living that is expected to follow said growth (the presence of liberal multi-party democracy is also no guarantee of economic prosperity, see India). That the CCP continues to reference its socialist legacy by calling itself communist and paying lip service to marxism is another means of legitimizing itself against the negative consequences of capitalist restoration, but it has no intention of returning to socialism.
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