I always thought that fascism had five important elements:
--A strong belief that--through social darwinism--morality is ultimately tied to blood and race, understood as descent and genetic relationship.
--A strong rejection of the classical "liberal" belief that individuals have rights that any legitimate state is bound to respect.
- -In its place, an assertion that individuals have duties to the state, seen as the decision-making organ of the collectivity.
--A strong belief that parliamentary democracy is not the way to choose the leaders of the state: a combination of charismatic expression and bureaucratic oligarchism is.
- -A strong fear of Marxist communism, and an eagerness to use any and all weapons--suspension of parliamentary democracy, mass propaganda, rallies, street violence, and so forth--to combat it.
So I don't think calling the current Russian or the current Chinese governmetn "fascist" is terribly useful. They have some of these elements, but not all of them.
Brad DeLong