Democracy isn't when you have multiple parties. It's when you elect people to govern. Many americans think that America has a uniparty, despite all appearances.

I feel like you have it the wrong way around. There are a lot of political setups where you "elect someone" that are absolutely not democracies. I can be an authoritarian supreme leader who allows citizens to elect who will run their province (from my choice of candidates of course!) and I really don't think it's reasonable to claim that this situation is a "democracy".

It's autocracy with democratic characteristics.

I agree your criticisms of democracy in the US and Taiwan have some validity but in terms of deciding whether China might be a democracy or not they seem like whataboutism.

Russia is a great example of this.

> I can be an authoritarian supreme leader who allows citizens to elect who will run their province (from my choice of candidates of course!)

by that definition, the united states wouldn't even be called a democracy