My understanding that membership in a communist party was necessary to become a public official. So I went to Wikipedia about Chinese elections to confirm:

However, the elections are not pluralistic, with nominations at all levels being controlled by the CCP.[226]

The communist party is still controlling the names on the ballots, which is not a feature of the TDG.

And I suspect these names are fairly supportive of the Party. If not, the party will find ways to remove them from the ballot the in next election. Maybe remove these individuals from their office beforehand.

After that little Wiki clip, another tidbit appeared:

The NPC is dominated by the CCP, with another eight minor parties having nominal representation in the condition of upholding CCP leadership.[227]

Having other parties was a surprise to me. But it's not hard to read between the lines that these parties are more communists than not.

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Ostensibly, the Soviet system was much like a TDG. The Poliburo was a series of indirect elections. Neither the ordinary Russians nor the rank-and-file communist members voted for the Politburo. But my research said that the local elections were tampered with such that Politburo-friendly local candidates usually seemed to win.

The Soviet elections were open to the citizenry, but most citizens did not bother voting.

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As far as westerners looking for an upgrade to liberal democracy, I'm not see many people thinking in this way.