> >it is a communist country after all, > That's like saying the Democratic People's Republic of > North Korea is 'Democratic'. Which is to say, it's totally > not.

I would not bet on this. They still have (opposed to for example the US) the idea of increasing the living conditions for all Chinese. They are quite homogeneous (Yes, I know, Han Chinese are the majority), have a strong cultural identity and identify with their country (not necessary with their government). The huge discrepancies in wealth could be easily reversed after the market economy did it's deed. I think this is one reason why all rich Chinese want to get their wealth out of the country ASAP.

> The huge discrepancies in wealth could be easily reversed

I don't think it could easily be reversed - you'd need a revolution. Not only because the higher ups have far too much skin in the game to want to reverse a system that generates huge wealth for themselves and their entire families, but they also know that the country needs capitalism and a market economy.

At the end of the cultural revolution, they also knew that after decades of proclaiming the evils of capitalism, it'd be a tough sell to the general population to just suddenly about face and say 'oops we were wrong, capitalism is good after all' and so we have 'socialism with Chinese characteristics' and a bunch of other things that are basically rebranded capitalism and that gives the general populace a warm fuzzy feeling without associating it with any of the cultural baggage terms like 'capitalism' have in Chinese society.

It is called peoples republic(!) of China. As for communism, they play that card whenever it suits them.