On the “is China communist” topic, at some point I often roll out:

If your whole government and everyone in it formally rejects capitalism and cares about people, someone who actually believes those things could rise in a way that is impossible under capitalism.

Sure, I’ve never been there, I don’t speak Mandarin, I haven’t done a graduate-level inquiry into the nature of their government. Sure, governments lie about their intentions all the time. But if someone was a Real Communist and wanted to go far in government, China greases the skids for them the same way the U.S. greases the skids for a wealthy guy who’s willing to sell out to the highest bidder.