Genuine question so please don’t hate on me. It seems to me that china now is more of a mixed market than a planned economy. Billionaires and class disparities definitely still exist in China and it seems like american communists almost romanticize china while ignoring obvious flaws in its system, only because they (rightfully) hate america and america hates China. China also supplies all of the world’s exploitative corporations with the vast majority of their goods. While China is probably better than the capitalist economies of the west, I don’t understand why a lot of people seem to hold it in the same regard as the USSR.
I think it's that people just need a win of some kind. So they identify with China, which is in opposition to America (which obviously makes it right) and China has some measurable power in the world and sometimes gets wins. So they get to identify with that win and spike the football in America's face. It's an emotional need in a lonely world.