Yes, there is no branch of the government that chooses the opposing candidate to the state party candidate.

In theory in most liberal countries candidates can run on scrapping the current system and replacing it. For example you can run a socialist candidate in US elections that wants to legally and non-violently remove capitalist democracy and replace it with a socialist autocracy. You cannot run a candidate in Chinese elections that wants to remove the Chinese Communist party from power.

This is one of the most critical freedoms that the USSR lacked and China lacks.