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It's fairly clear which policies have contributed to their economic rise.

Shift to markets, stringent capital controls, consolidation of massive state owned enterprises, encouragement of joint ventures between Chinese companies, western companies, and the government, lack of stringent IP laws/rights.

Some of the above is “capitalistic” and some of it is not. Commentators have been predicting China would continue to shift towards becoming more capitalist or fail for decades and they’ve been continuously proven wrong. China has developed a completely different model of development from the western consensus, but people still want to have their cake and eat it too.

Yes, there are lots of reforms that contributed to their rise, but adopting elements of a market economy and engaging in open trade with the rest of the world were key elements. Reforming their centrally planned economy wouldn't have resulted in the same outcome without the those.

But yes, I totally agree that you don't need to be 100% capitalist to benefit from having a market economy. Even the US's economy is ~15% public sector. Usually when multiple ideologies are competing, there's elements of truth all around.

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