Has him making himself premier for life changed the balance now though?
I assume he could basically do as he wishes,small steps before getting to the family hand downs
Depends how he handles things, the biggest problem he has is that for awhile now China has been increasingly pulled down by vested interests, much like the West has been for ages. For instance, they want to deal with the horrible air quality which is a big headache for the CCP's credibility, yet they can't due to the above issue.
There's also the same downtrend in industry that has plagued the West (though it's not really a plague, it's just how it is with increased productivity), we didn't do anything to help the people affected by it (retraining) and it's cost us political stability, it will do the same in China if they emulate that failure.