This only works if you say capitalism is the existence of private businesses, rather than a qualitative distinction of how resources and political representation are distributed. I’m kind of on the side that for a socialist country to re-adopt capitalism would require a total dissolution or rearrangement of its former state, and nothing like that happened in China. The socialist infrastructure and mechanics are still there.

You might have less pushback if you said it more like “China has adopted market liberalization and is involved within the global capitalist economy” which is more undeniable. I’d be with you on that one. To say China is capitalist would be making a very distinct claim about how those privately owned businesses you mentioned have state representation and how much political authority they wield. Those business owners you mentioned don’t possess the same sort of unilateral authority in the same way as in a capitalist economy, the Chinese state is not designed to primarily protect the capitalist class, and that’s a major distinction.

Oh, ok. Read your other comments. You mean to say China has capitalist elements, which I’d more likely call economic liberalization