China is not communist, at least not in any way related to the western definition. There is no common ownership of the means of production and there is still very much an independent state, money, and social classification.

Communism collapsed intellectually in the West after the economic collapse of the USSR and the relevant death tolls. I know China is communist, but in democratic countries, for the most part, communism is an idea that died off.

It's on the rise again. https://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/op-ed/article237089274.h...

I'd say it died off for generations because of active deplatforming of anyone involved rather than an open debate on the merits. For instance it was literally illegal to be a communist in the US due to the Communist Control Act of 1954.