Gross misuse of IE considering socialism is literally a less extreme version of communism.
Marxist-Leninist was literally communism where in their own words it was "a dictatorship of the proletariat". Where Marx and Engels literally dismissed socialism as "a middle class movment of quacks." In Marx's outline of socialism, it literally disregards it as "capitalism still exists to a lesser degree." ML-communism is authoritarian and completely different that most forms of socialism as well as "pure" communism.
Socialism, on the other hand has either state-controlled or private-but-worker-controlled economy with a democratically elected government and not necessarily single party. It was an entirely other school of people and ideas. China is not socialism as their government is not elected, but appointed by a ruling party. It is a statist-oligarchy plain and simple.
Socialism is constantly misused. Stalin and hell, the Nazis called themselves socialist even though they weren't at all. George Orwell actually said that Marxist-Leninist communism has circles around and is on the right again.