We should always remember that any government that is not elected by the people is illegitimate, and does not have a mandate to rule.

If you had your way and tried to transform China into a Western-style democracy in a year or two, you'd have bloodshed and mayhem on your hands , mate. The PRC Government doesn't do that bad, mate, considering the vastness and diversity of the people.

Considering recent acts and clampdowns on just about everything in the PRC, they seem worried that they aren't performing up to scratch, actually!

I can't be arsed to dig out the research that I did in the past, or what may have been just quotes from books that did not end up featuring in the final piece that I was looking to get this particular quote from, but they do say that legitimacy is pretty much judged according to its results in China, as opposed to the west where the elections hold the key to legitimacy. This is not the actual quote that I previously used, but points out pretty much the same thing:

The CCP has historically justified its rule on the basis of performance, either ideological performance framed through a popular belief in communism, or on moral and economic
performance as it does now.

I can't be arsed at this ungodly hour where I'm about to sleep, to post a more professional reference for that or do more than 30 seconds of research. But here you go: http://students.washington.edu/nupsa/Docs/Volume5/McGinnis.pdf

I'm not a 100% pro-democracy person, simply because I feel let down by democratically elected governments in the past back home. But one thing is certain, if the current PRC government don't get things right, people could choose a different option (no real democracy needed for this) and yes, the execution of that decision would be chaotic. The PRC have acknowledged that the public's support is absolutely essential for them to survive in the future.