At present, the PRC, DPRK, Vietnam, Laos, and Cuba are all socialist. In each state, public ownership is the principal aspect of the economy, and the working classes control the state.
1.) The PRC is socialist-in-name-only. In reality they're highly capitalistic, it just happens to be state-controlled capitalism. (Class, what do we call state-controlled capitalism?).
1.5.) Also, the PRC state is controlled by an entrenched uni-party with rigid hierarchies and complete control of the state apparati including elections, banking, commerce, industry, telecom, and media. Not controlled by the working class, despite the "communist" party label.
2.) I've spent time in Vietnam living with a working class Vietnamese family. They do not "control the state," and everyone there knows that. There's a lot of cynicism and apathy surrounding politics there, but the working class people there generally do not feel empowered. Politics and everyday life are in a completely separate bubbles, and that most of the politicians and government officials are corrupt and self-serving is generally viewed as a given.
3.) The PRC is literally a Han-dominated ethno-state which habitually commits forced assimilation and cultural erasure as a matter of policy (called "national unity"), which they've committed against the Cantonese-speaking populations in the south, indigenous communities such as the Hmong and other groups, and the local populations of colonized regions including Tibet, Xinjiang, and Inner Mongolia.
You seem to think arguing in favor of these states makes someone inherently bad-faith
4.) Obfuscating the facts is bad faith. Calling that out isn't thought-terminating, it's critically engaging.
[...] as you immediately assume anyone defending, say, the DPRK is a liar, malicious, ingenuine, etc.
5.) Holy shit... I can't make my fifth point any better than you've already made it for me...