Weren't China and the USSR communists?

They were working towards becoming communist states

Do you have an interesting book on this subject (or documentary) to suggest because I don't feel like making you type up everything you know. Just drop your sources comrade

Like specific books on if USSR and china were communist or?

the idea that they were building towards being communists states but didn't get there. Like how did they define a communist state and at what stage where they? What caused them to not get there? Etc

Oh. I mean @Scratchin_Bandit can answer that better than I can but it's not really info I gained from any one book necessarily. Mostly through understanding theory, convos with old professors and other socialists

I guess the main reason I say that is because those nations really never reached a point in their development where they could have communism full stop