President Hu is trying to reassert centralized control over the Chinese military, bureaucracy, and economy. Thus the big corruption show trials of Party bosses and reorganization of the PLA (breaking up fiefdoms), among other things. I'm not any kind of Sinologist, but seems to me he's ice-skating uphill. China's been a collection of warlords for the vast majority of its history, mostly under emperors with little authority outside of the capital. The iron-fisted period of Mao was the exception, not the rule.