The only truly communist state left is North Korea.
If I had to rank nations by level of communism in their government I would start with NK. Then several orders of magnitude from that the PRC. It’s really no longer a communist state, it allows private property & private business concerns all under a heavy authoritarian thumb, but still, they are allowed. Actually, the PRC is really a nazi state. It genuflects to socialism but it has growing influential racial ideology. You should read some of the speeches by their military & party hacks. They could have been written by the most virulent antisemitic. Just substitute Han for Aryan.
Again moving several orders of magnitude away from China even more so from North Korea is Russia. Russia is not a communist state; not the USSR at all. If it’s anything it’s a return to old Imperial Russia without the glitz. It allows private property & businesses all under a authoritarian thumb like China. It’s an authoritarian state like in the days of the Czars but with strong kleptocratic elements. Putin wants his legacy to be the man who restored the imperial borders. Also motivated by the the Orthodox mystical notion of Moscow being the third Rome restoring Ukraine to its Slavic family. That’s the total motivation for his Ukraine adventure. That doesn’t make Russia our friend or necessarily our enemy. It’s really more of a European problem then our problem. It’s almost a return to the pre-WWI days. Anyway we don’t need to look for enemies particularly with our current utterly clueless incompetent leadership.
Our problem is our borders & China!
Really PRC seems more to fit the bill of National Socialism more then “communist”. They are almost classic nazi complete with the racism.
And it’s tragic, but communism is far more influential in DC than in Moscow where it is truly gadfly.
There is some truth in that. NK is definitely hardcore commie. Cuba is still commie, but is easing its crushing tentacles somewhat when it comes to very small mom-and-pop businesses. Laos is still commie, and while private ownership of land is prohibited, there is what is known as “land-use rights” which allow for people to occupy land, and even transfer that land-use right to another; but the state is the legal and ultimate owner of the land. Vietnam is somewhat similar to Laos. China is commie, but with definite fascist elements.