I've haven't finished it yet but I've been working my way through The East is Still Red: Chinese Socialism in the 21st Century by Carlos Martinez. It doesn't satisfy your latter condition, but so far I've found it to be a good broad overview of the PRC and it goes on to argue that China remains socialist contrary to some Western misconceptions that China abandoned socialism with the Deng Xiaoping reforms. I guess I'd liken it to Blackshirts & Reds in that it's an introduction to what Actually Existing (Chinese) Socialism is like and how it developed. It's available on the Internet Archive here: https://archive.org/details/the-east-is-still-red-chinese-socialism-in-the-21st-century