industriousrevolt's answer is a good one, but I'm going to expand on it:

Who has the shit life in 1980s China? Ethnic minorities, democrats, the religious, and peasants. The first three groups are organised - as they start having capes trigger, they will quite soon realise that this is an incredibly powerful weapon against the government. So, soon enough you're going to get increasing levels of unrest, and at some point that's going to flash over into open revolt (If for no other reason, because of the conflict seeking of capes). It's going to be a disunited revolt. They'll all agree on overthrowing the government; at best they will also all agree on holding elections once the war is over (or something like that), but in terms of strategy, tactics, operational methods, aims...there will be no basic agreement. Outside nations will be taking a range of policies - the Soviet Union is still around but not getting on well with China, so might be supporting their fellow Communists, might be rubbing their hands with glee and trying to foster a faction of True Communists. The Republic of China might be sitting on the sideline shitting themselves, they might be fighting. Vietnam...India...North Korea...China has a lot of neighbours, most of them have some form of territorial dispute going on, and a lot of them have an interest in what the eventual internal government of China looks like. Oh, and the US will stick an oar in, they generally do. As the war goes on within China, there will be atrocities on both sides, foreign interventions, rampaging armies &c &c. The CCP has a lot of depth to call on, in terms of armed men and materiel, and a lot of its opposition is going to be heavily urban and (at least seen as) foreign or foreign-influenced, so a lot of the peasantry are going to back the Party just as they did in the Civil War in the 40s. With climbing numbers of capes and no end to the carnage, things are going to get messy. My headcanon here is that the Yangban formed first, then found a figurehead in a descendant of Mao, then conquered; in much the same way that the New Model Army was formed to win the English Civil War, then dictated the peace and reformed England around it. Thus the CUI - something that probably bears very little resemblance to the external appearance of the PRC it replaced, but has many similarities under the surface, plus the Yangban.