Which communist country is more powerful

[Beet]

It's a mistake to say China isn't communist because it allows market forces to play a decisive role in the economy. First of all, ML is claimed to be a scientific theory, which means that policies that don't accord with facts should be discarded. The fact of the matter was, Maoism was a disaster (as McArthur pointed out) and Soviet central planning failed as well. The CPC "seeks truth from facts" which are that market forces have certain advantages in determining resource allocation.

This is claimed to be a ML approach because it is a scientific one. Now as to how it is different from capitalism, that is easy. In a communist system the communists control the "commanding heights" of the economy, as Lenin pointed out when he did the NEP. Similarly in China, the state controls the SOE, which are the commanding heights. Moreover, the CPC controls the political system. You would not have someone like Michael Bloomberg spending $100 million in Florida to potentially flip an election in China. Someone like him would be sent to jail, and actually could be sentenced to a long term for corruption. Billionaires are allowed to join the Party and give advice into policy yes, but at the end of the day they are not the ones in control nor do they have any real influence.