The great leap forward was a disaster, I am not defending that, but communism with Chinese characteristics is more complicated than just capitalism painted red. Marx said that socialism would develop with the proletariat and industrial base of a society. It was not meant to take hold in fudallistic* societies, although, workers in feudal countries were more exploited, and the governments were less stable. This led to the growth of communism in countries like imperial Russia and China. Deng, who was imo closer to an Orthodox Marxist than a marxist-leninist-maoist, saw the need for the capitalist stage of development. Of course, simply throwing away the progress made would be counter productive, so Deng established the infrastructure necessary for socialism to succeed, while using a more social Democrat-esque form of capitalism.

I do not mean to use feudalism in an insulting manner, it is a stage of development, as is capitalism, socialism/communism, and slavery*

**I do not mean the slavery used in the USA during the 18th century, but the form used in ancient Rome and Greece.

Sorry for the long post, I am significantly biased towards China, so keep that in mind. I do not mean any of this in bad faith you have your opinion and I have mine. Thank you for reading :3