This is marked as a dupe, but I can't find any other stories on this topic that are more active / higher-voted. Can someone provide a link if they have it?

How did China manage to maintain a rotating system of supreme leaders for as long as it did? It's a fairly rare achievement.

There were several discussions earlier this week about it. That would be my guess.

Strap yourselves in for 200+ replies. The chinese sock puppet forum sliding is about to begin!

This is the norm for China, and it has worked (for its large part of world domination history), so nothing to hold your breath for. In that aspect, Deng Xiaoping was rather an anomaly (although his large part is still the norm). China produces anomalies every now and then. For anomalies to become the norm is atypical.