People who closely read my post will notice I am not defending China. There are still major problems here. I am merely pointing out that the term communist cannot really be applied to China anymore. I like and agree with your term ‘Robber Baron Capitalist State.’
I knew there would be some name calling from people who think that I am suggesting that all is now well in China. There is still alot of changes that need to take place here and I think that especially in this case, patience is needed. China is on the right track....
Just because China is not a communist country doesn't mean it's not a problem. I think the real problem with China isn't communism - it's the fact that over thousands of years, China has been the ever expanding empire. Only two centuries of relative weakness* has somewhat constrained China's territorial ambitions. When Japan embarked on its quest for empire, it was merely emulating what the Chinese had done for thousands of years before it. Ordinary Chinese are not satisfied with China's boundaries, and I suspect a Chinese leader who decides China needs more land and starts a war to take that land would have universal public support. (He would, of course, cite historical documents where China treated those as tributary states).
* Note that this weakness was only relative to the Western powers. The Chinese state mustered up enough military power to take Tibet and East Turkistan during the period of "weakness", now about 40% of China's entire territorial extent.