Stop calling China communist

20 years after the end of the Cold War, many people still persist using the term "Communist China". True, China is still a one-party state ruled by the Communist Party, but this usage of this term is not very accurate.

The beginning of the usage of Communist China was resulted from the division of China. Communist is an adjective to distinguish it from the legitimate government, or Nationalist China. Nowadays, only 24 countries still recognize the government in Taiwan, and that government itself has ceased to call itself China. In this sense, there is no need to add that adjective for distinguishing them from each other.

You can still say that the usage of the adjective was aimed to indicate the nature of the regime. Most people would know that China adopted capitalist economy more than three decades ago. It is not on the path to the glorious communist utopia. Even the political environment is much looser compared with any communist society in the past, let alone China in Cultural Revolution. People can choose their own lifestyle, and people can freely travel (I mean most of them). Those privileges were not enjoyed by the citizens of any communist state.

Granted, the party is still called Communist Party. But you cannot call it Communist China just because of that. It is like calling North Korea "Democratic Korea" because it has Democratic in its official name. That was true for East Germany as well.

So how should we call today's China? Considering the complexity of this large and populous country with a long history, maybe no adjective can fit. One thing is for sure, it is not longer communist any more.