This report completely missed why many Marxists refer to China as the CPC vs the colloquial CCP. They say CPC because the “Communist Party” part of it comes before the nation, as a symbolic way to reject nationalism in favor of internationalism.

I think the author of this paper would have benefited from talking to the hardline leftists and asking them their thoughts rather than trying to analyze them from the outside. Most of the time, if you ask someone in good faith why they believe what they believe, they’ll honestly answer out of a desire to be understood.