China is definitely not communist, but it is definitely less capitalist than the US. Fundamentally the "Communist" Party is about control, which is directly opposed to a free market (i.e., capitalism). For example, the Chinese government wants a stock market. But, they want this market to always go up. (down = people lose money = risk of social unrest) So this year they tried stopping the market if it fell too far, suspending trading of certain companies, telling fund and/or brokerages that they could not sell certain companies. NOT capitalism. Also, the economy is dominated by large state-owned-enterprises (SOEs) which receive strong direction from the government. The government tells factories around Beijing to close whenever a government meeting is in town, so the air will be clean. Note how none of those things happen in the US.