Many nations call themselves a republic including America and China. So it is very general term. So what is your idea of what is a republic? Certainly US and China are very different political systems.
Clue is in your opening sentence.
What a nation calls itself may not always match with what it really is.
Meanwhile;
Definition of republic
1a(1)
: a government having a chief of state who is not a monarch and who in modern times is usually a president
(2)
: a political unit (such as a nation) having such a form of government
b(1)
: a government in which supreme power resides in a body of citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by elected officers and representatives responsible to them and governing according to law
(2)
: a political unit (such as a nation) having such a form of government
....
A
republic (from
Latin res publica 'public affair') is a
form of government in which "supreme power is held by the people and their elected representatives".
[1] In republics, the country is considered a "public matter", not the
private concern or property of the rulers. The primary positions of power within a republic are attained through
democracy or
a mix of democracy with
oligarchy or
autocracy rather than being unalterably occupied by any given family lineage or group. With
modern republicanism, it has become the opposing form of government to a
monarchy and therefore a modern republic has no
monarch as
head of state.
[2][3][4]
As of 2017,
159 of the world's
206 sovereign states use the word "republic" as part of their official names. Not all of these are republics in the sense of having elected governments, nor is the word "republic" used in the names of all states with elected governments.
...