I will argue that the President Xi ordered central planning is in fact succeeding famously.
To create the envisioned return to pure communism, President Xi is embarked on a program to destroy all evidence of capitalism on Chinese society. This involves totally wrecking the existing economy and social structure and then rebuilding from scratch what he has termed China Socialism.
The CCP implemented Red Lines on the banks that destroyed the real-estate development on which the whole economy and regional governments depended. Very recently, the new auto industry manufacturing industry was similarly destroyed. All foreign business is either leaving or has left. Retail businesses in the major citiees have shut their doors. Manufacturing is also ceased. Factories closed.
The resulting unemployment is incalculable. All Government economic numbers are just bogus and totally without foundation.
If China and the CCP actually survive, the result is going to be a China that is unrecognizable
The prices of the apartments was and is out of the reach of most prospective buyers.
Many buildings were built at a time when Chinese labor was cheaper.
The basis was build using $1/hour labor and sell when buyer incomes are $9/hour.
Now the labor is $6/hour and the people making $9/hour worry about being replaced by Indian labor.
Also, urban land in China is owned by the government. People would be buying apartments with say 15-30 years left on the ground lease. That is not an attractive option for a couple in their 30s.
Lenin realized that communism could not produce needed resources, so he instituted the New Economic Policy, the NEP, a limited capitalism. Stalin ended it, which starved millions. Mao’s land reform tried the same thing, but it did not work because the peasants had no idea how to manage farms. Millions starved to death.