I say this as potentially the world's biggest disliker of communism... this really has nothing to do with communism.

Sure it does. Communism empowers tyrants who abuse the people. Every time.

Power empowers, what name one chooses to name their regime is largely irrelevant.

>Communism is awful in every form

Does not follow. If I can give you several examples of capitalist neo-liberals doing terrible things, then by this line of reasoning capitalism is bad in every form, right?

What economic aspect of China is particularly communist anyway? They wave a red flag around and call their president/prime minister/tsar/whatever a general secretary, but they clearly are or soon will have the most successful capitalist economy in human history.

Communism is the ideal that empowered the current government of China. Once the abusive tyrants gained power, the economic model became a secondary issue. It follows and there’s a causal relationship between communism and tyranny because they are one in the same. Socialism is merely the marketing campaign.