I think its a step in the right direction, but they still have a long way to go, for example thier local authorities are corrupt and they don't give a damn about thier people.
This is the issue with governance in China:
You have the inside track who are the elites. They are competant, generally know what they are doing, and genuinely care about making China a better country for its people. These guys make plans that are usually well thought out and (most of the time) well intentioned.
Then you have the outside track. They are the local officials whom are often are either corrupt, incompetant, or both. Some of them are good, but many are not. They tend to botch the implementation of the plans that the inner track make, or choose to ignore the inner track all together. There have been many cases in recent years of local officials defying the central government. Sometimes the central government hears about the illegal land siezures and actually tries to put a stop to it, but unfortunately that doesn't always happen.