China didn't start it's transformation into a modern nation until Deng Xiaoping took power, pivoting away from strict maoism with market reforms. Modern China is far from maoist, the majority of their GDP is from private companies. And for their state owned enterprises most are run as if they were a private company once they have stability and an established market.
And many state owned enterprises started out as publically traded companies, so in those cases the state has no motivation to tamper with production as it would risk the enterprise becoming unprofitable and burdensome.
If there were ever an election to not vote third party in, I'd argue it's these upcoming elections. They are effectively over the validity of the constitution itself, since the Republicans have clearly demonstrated they have no intention to follow it. A vote for Democrats isn't a vote for Democrats as much as a vote against fascism.
The system itself is incredibly flawed and the Democrats are truly spineless. I have zero hope that they'd do anything to actually fix the system's problems, but when the alternative is becoming even more like Nazi Germany I don't see how voting third party could have any benefit. With the recently increased federal voter ID requirements beyond normal registration I worry that it may be too late to have truly free and fair elections already.