First, communism didn't lose all its adherents. Fidel is still out there. Not a big problem, though. Then there are a billion or so Mao Tse Tung-adoring folks in China. One-sixth of the planet waving red flags ought to mean something for the prospect of a global communism.
China is about as much a communist nation as the United States is a federal republic.
Since the privatization of agriculture began shortly after Mao's death, China has managed a fitful transition from brutal, totalitarian regime leading a closed economy to brutal, totalitarian regime selling its citizens for free trade. Now, somewhere above the tear gas-filled streets of Seattle, a long courtship is about to end. The economic marriage between China and its former capitalist enemies is about to be consummated with the rise of Beijing within the World Trade Organization. Free trade is about to include 1 billion new hungry consumers and 1 billion new low-wage workers. The folks on Wall Street couldn't be happier.