They are. Technically. It's the most warped twisted definition of socialism. But being socialist isn't what's important in ML Communist regimes. They, like their mirror on the right. The fascists. Are all about authority and authoritarianism.

The biggest problem for most of us westerners trying to understand this. Is that we are propagandized and indoctrinated to view left and right as being about social issues. And that thou shall have no economy before God but capitalism. And that socialism does not exist as anything other than a boogeyman to scare us with. We are not taught in schools what socialism actually is beyond Marxist-Leninist communism bad. And as a socialist while I do agree that Lenin's monster he is indeed quite bad. And that while reading the philosophy and theory of Marx he managed to make all the worst possible interpretations. His version of communism doesn't even define all of communism let alone all of socialism. But it is still technically socialism.