That’s a false dichotomy. China is ostensibly commmunist but free market is alive and well (with heavy doses of state directed influence, but so as in other western countries, witness the military industrial complex)
A truer dichotomy would be between a rigid semi-dictatorship and quasi-democracy... given that even China has token democracy at some levels despite now essentially having a rubber stamped dictator, and many western states are a long way from true democracy - the voting system in the US hardly allows representative democracy and special interest groups are adept at manipulating voting blocs very effectively, and is 2 party democracy really democracy? Other countries do better jobs (ie Australia’s preferential voting, germany’s Proportional representation) but you can argue that till the cows come home
A truer dichotomy would be between a rigid semi-dictatorship and quasi-democracy... given that even China has token democracy at some levels despite now essentially having a rubber stamped dictator, and many western states are a long way from true democracy - the voting system in the US hardly allows representative democracy and special interest groups are adept at manipulating voting blocs very effectively, and is 2 party democracy really democracy? Other countries do better jobs (ie Australia’s preferential voting, germany’s Proportional representation) but you can argue that till the cows come home