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There was this book called The Communist Manifesto. The government of China doesn't look very much like the book. So, not communist.
But China is ruled by the Chinese Communist Party. So yes, communist, at least by their own declaration.
(You see this same thing in the US, where the Republicans and Democrats get the other side shoving in their face every statement made by every nutcase who manages to win a primary.)
I would say that the problem comes from them being a one-party dictatorship, with the explicit intention of never giving that up. That doesn't lead to a government that is accountable to the people; it's a government that is trying very hard to avoid being accountable to the people.
I would also say that Xi is making them more genuinely communist than they were 15 years ago.
Actually, no. The CCP is communist only by name. From the Chinese constitution[1]:
> The People's Republic of China is a socialist state under the people's democratic dictatorship led by the working class and based on the alliance of workers and peasants.
The second part of this sentence is arguably false, but they define themselves as strictly socialist.
In the same document, we see:
> Citizens' lawful private property is inviolable.
> The State, in accordance with law, protects the rights of citizens to private property and to its inheritance.
So the abolition of private property, one of the core tenets of communism, doesn't exist in China.
Economically, modern China is built on a capitalistic system, where private companies compete on an open stock market.
The only traces of communism in China is an autocratic government, and some limited benefits for citizens like free basic healthcare and primary education.
Bear in mind, I'm not an expert in politics, nor in Chinese related matters, but if we're looking for a label to use to define their system, communist wouldn't be one of them.
[1]: https://www.constituteproject.org/constitution/China_2004.pd...