Obviously it is a counterfactual but no serious leftist would say that China without market reforms wouldn’t have eradicated poverty, and moreover done it faster and more completely. The seeds of poverty alleviation were planted during the Maoist era; improvement in health, education improvement, and industrialization.

For the sake of simplicity, please enjoy the following meme:

If we were talking amongst ourselves you’d be right but here we’re responding to a liberal OP who doesn’t know what words mean and purposefully worded their intent to avoid the word “capitalism”

Gotta develop the industrial capacity before you can seize it