It's the wrong way to look about that imho. That's not the impression chineese i've talked too had, and if the most rural, disenfranchised people i've ever met have the illusion of choice, like most people in western countries, i don't think you can reject that just by saying "but the CCP!".

First, and that wasn't my original point at all, you have a lot of different motions in the CCP, that you could easily compare to US 2 party system (it's even more democratic in a way because you have more choice between motions and those can align on specific policies).

But my point was about local elections. You don't vote for a party unless you're a militant: you vote for a person that you believe in, someone who will make choice for your village/small town.

The communist party is the government, but within the party there is a significant amount of ideological diversity. The most notable examples are between “true believers” like Mao and pragmatists like Deng and Hu