Communism is, as its always been, just a PR campaign to cover whatever form of evil wants to sit at the top in control. In Xi's case, it's the god worship he wants, pretty clearly. Mao ran the religion of the Chinese people underground because he wanted to be their god. This is actually the end state of Marxist thought. Xi has rode that desire among the previous generation for a new god-king with the associated priest-types that sing his praises because they can't rise up that high. But that just makes him "Emperor in terrible clothes".
I'm surprised more don't see the Holy Roman Empire parallels with current China. Since the HRE wasn't really holy, Roman or that much of an Empire. China is at least 5 polities that are held together by graft, corruption and threats of annihilation.
The Cultural Revolution displaced all of the previous Mandarins and Manchus. That's what it was really about for Mao. From Deng's ascension until the mid-2000s, the purged families had taken back over almost complete control. It's why there was a brief period where non-Mandarins could make businesses and rise up. But as the Mandarin system keeps moving back into control, the economic system looks little different than the past 400 years in China. It's just a lot wealthier because the West drug them out of the mire of stupidity for a couple of years.
Maybe the most darkly comedic part is that China, as it standards right now, has a completely Fascist economic system. The State doesn't own that many actual companies anymore, though even the one they do they only have like 60% equity stakes. But, they have political commissars and give explicit direction a lot. It's why it can be very effective at some things, at least until the corruption adds up. They've also managed to replicate the Nazi's "largest debt bubble in history" form, as well.
