I agree, this is purely academic. I don’t think you’re wrong, per se, this is largely a semantical argument. Beyond the mercantilist commodity markets, there was also cooperative ownership in the agricultural sector. No socialist economy has ever been “pure,” even the DPRK has private ownership in special economic zones like Rason. That’s why I put an emphasis on looking at which aspect of the economy is principle, and which class is dominant.

China’s Socialist Market Economy is quite different from the soviet model. In some ways, it’s lagging behind even the Maoist era when it comes to societal guarantees. At the same time, I do believe that we have to understand that the path they’ve chosen has largely worked out heavily in favor of the PRC, and allowed them to surpass the USSR in other areas.

I believe when we try to identify socialism as what the soviets did, we are making an error (not saying you do that). We need to apply dialectical materialism consistently towards how we view socialist states and their progress.