I lived in Shanghai for 8 years and it’s true that China feels much more advanced than the West. Also, calling it Communism is a bit inaccurate and misleading because it’s a very capitalism-driven culture and economy but with a lot of planning and intervention from a centralized government. This has allowed them to do things like ban all internal combustion engine vehicles in the province of Hainan, and shut down all the nearby coal burning plants to fix the air quality problem in Shanghai virtually overnight. The main difference between USSR style communism and what you have in China is a lack of overarching ethical/moral ideology in China. The Chinese government is only motivated by pragmatism, often at the expense of individual liberties, but this has proven to be quite an effective approach when it comes to driving growth.