The Chinese political regime is under tremendous stress from several factors, some historical and others of a more recent origin.

Historically, the nation has been strongly divided along regional, linguistic, and ethnic lines. The communists used these divisions to their advantage during the early 20th century. (It was also their good fortune that the Koumintang was thoroughly corrupt and inept -- the perfect enemy for a communist uprising, not unlike Czarist Russia in that respect.)

Under the strong repression of Maoist Communism the various historical divisions were brutally oppressed -- millions of people died in the continuous upheavals during the middle-third of the 20th century as the communists slowly suppressed the various factional divisions. This is the stability that Tito offered the former state known as Yugoslavia. However with the growing power of the non-communists in China and the relaxation of central control, the historical divisions are re-emerging. The importance of these divisions is magnified by the disparity of entrepreneurial wealth and the increasingly evident corruption of the government's organs responsible for development.

It is more than likely that the central government will be forced by the Chinese Army to crack-down on the factionalization that is anathema to any centrally-controlled, authoritarian government. (The way a democracy deals with factions is through political empowerment -- bring'em into the process and they are no longer a threat to stability and order. Practically by definition, a communist government cannot sustain itself with a diversity of opinion in the populace).

So I think that China is on a collision course with itself. the factors of calcified central control, an increasingly politically powerful military, resurgence of regionalism, and the stressors of economic growth will make China increasingly unstable. This is not an all-good thing or an all-bad thing. But there is no question that it is extraordinarily dangerous and will get worse, much worse, IMO. I'm betting China will engage in one of it's periodic civil wars in which many millions die. China has a long history of self-butchery. There is no reason to believe those factors which brought on previous bloodbaths are no longer at work.