[aimixin]

Marxists argue that we should treat socioeconomic development as a field of scientific study, so we can develop objective theories to explain societal development since the dawn of human civilization to today, to understand how it developed, how it is currently developing, and to try and predict what it is developing into.

The purpose of any science is not to simply understand, but to control. We learn about electricity not to just understand the cause of lightning, but to control and harness the power of electricity to build new technologies and such to benefit human civilization.

Hence, the purpose of developing these theories is to form our politics around them so that we can facilitate socioeconomic development, to continually push humanity forwards into the future.

Most political parties with "Communist" in the name are Marxist-Leninist parties, and Marxist-Leninist distinguish between two ideas, "socialism" and "communism."

Communism is not a system anyone has ever implemented. The USSR was the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. From Mao until today, the CPC has described China's system as a socialist state, not a "communist" one.

If Communist Parties in practice never establish communism, why do they call themselves "Communist"?

Because "communist" refers to extrapolating Marxian theories on human societal development as far as they can go, i.e. it is the theoretically most developed society possible. It is basically like a post-scarcity, Star Trek esque futuristic society that has such an abundance of wealth people don't have to work as a means of survival anymore but only work as a means to fulfill themselves as human beings.

It is best to think of "communism" thus as more akin to "futurism." A futurist is someone with an extremely positive, forwards-looking vision into the future, and wants to do things in the here-and-now to help push us in that direction. It offers an optimistic vision to encourage development in that direction.

Communist Parties are Communist because they are forwards-looking, they always have a more positive vision of the future they want to move towards, and never want things to "remain the same." It is part of China's constitution that the Party has to always develop the forces of production.

Meanwhile, "socialism" is what Marxist-Leninists actually advocate to implement in the here-and-now. You can't "try" communism, as if you just implement an arbitrary set of policies and you have "communism." It's something you build towards over the combined work of many many generations.

While Marxist-Leninists make the distinction between "socialism" and "communism," Chinese Marxists additionally add the distinction between the "primary stage of socialism" and "developed socialism," arguing that China has not even finished constructing socialism and is still in an underdeveloped, primary stage. They also tend to be critical of Soviet Marxists who had argued socialist construction was completed and they were on their way towards communism, viewing this as unrealistic and not a correct analysis of their current conditions, which led them to implementing bad policies.

Given that we will likely not see "communism" any time in the near future, probably not even in a hundred years, it is best to think of communism more as a futuristic philosophy, looking towards the future, than a specific system you implement. It's the reason why the USSR and China launched massive industrialization campaigns and became manufacturing superpowers. No, they didn't achieve "communism," but that's not the point, they point is they achieved something, they propelled their societies into the future.

China is only "Communist" in the sense that it has one of these future-oriented parties at the helm, constantly trying to drive China towards the future. But its actual economic system is not communism, but it is a rudimentary form of socialism, in the primary stage of socialism.

We must recognize that our labors today and the unceasing work of so many generations in the future are paired together, all moving towards the ultimate goal of achieving communism. If we throw away our Communist Party’s lofty ideals, we will lose our direction and become coldly utilitarian. At the same time, we must recognize that the realization of communism is a very long historical process. We must ground ourselves in the struggles of the present moment and keep our work down to earth.

—Xi Jinping, Speech at the Central Committee for the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.

To care about the immediate interests only while forgetting the lofty ideal will result in the loss of direction of progress. But to talk big about the lofty ideal without doing any practical work will get one divorced from reality.

—Jiang Zemin, Speech at the meeting celebrating the 80th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China