China and Social Welfare

I feel one important issue I have taken away from Dr. Minxin Pei lecture on the 13th was that China is lacking in social welfare. While the major cities like Beijing hide this very well, China still has many social problems that could be remedied, at least partially with social welfare. Healthcare, Social Security, and Education are some of these main areas that the Chinese Government could be better supporting, but will this ever happen? My thought process tells me that it will be very unlikely without a more democratic system.