No, you would have called them tankies. These people are comrades, and liberals love stealing their valor. Castro, a person you here refer to as a "great," said

"Xi Jinping is one of the strongest and most capable revolutionary leaders I have met in my life. I think China is a socialist country, and Vietnam is a socialist nation as well. And they insist that they have introduced all the necessary reforms in order to motivate national development and to continue seeking the objectives of socialism.

There are no fully pure regimes or systems. In Cuba, for instance, we have many forms of private property. We have hundreds of thousands of farm owners. In some cases they own up to 110 acres. In Europe they would be considered large landholders. Practically all Cubans own their own home and, what is more, we welcome foreign investment.

But that does not mean that Cuba has stopped being socialist."

Guevara, another you call a "great" here, was openly against condemning Stalin as well. Famously, he once said

“In the so called mistakes of Stalin lies the difference between a revolutionary attitude and a revisionist attitude. You have to look at Stalin in the historical context in which he moves, you don’t have to look at him as some kind of brute, but in that particular historical context. I have come to communism because of daddy Stalin and nobody must come and tell me that I mustn’t read Stalin. I read him when it was very bad to read him. That was another time. And because I’m not very bright, and a hard-headed person, I keep on reading him. Especially in this new period, now that it is worse to read him. Then, as well as now, I still find a Series of things that are very good.”

Don't try to absolve them of their words and turn them into toothless liberals for you to celebrate, either condemn them honestly or uphold them honestly. It's okay to disagree with them, and it's okay to agree, but don't lionize figures who disagree fundamentally with the stance you're taking now and would condemn hatred for the PRC and Xi here as though they are some "pure" saints untainted by the reality of turning theory into practice.