yes, rule of the elite is a good thing in theory, but you forget that, The only system that protects people from the state is democracy. You know the story of Caligula, the bloody emperor of Rome. If a cruel narcissist takes over China in the future, he can torture all people for years. At present, all Chinese people are slaves of Xi Jinping and depend on his mercy. Let's just imagine a scenario where Xi Jinping woke up from his bed tomorrow, and he ordered all bald people to die, who can stop him? you also remember the Cambodia dictatorship pol pot, that madman killed everyone who knew how to read
It doesn't. Democracy can be a tyranny of the majority over the minorities (France experienced the ethnocide of its minorities, or at least an attempt, a slaughter in Vendée etc.). Futhermore, there are various systems and even at the moment, we often fail to distinguis them. Among the failing ones I can see at the moment, we've mix of plutocracy, technocracy, gerontocracy and maybe cacocracy, kleptocracy or coorporatism... Those are rather a sub-form of oligarchy/autocracy in which only a few are leading (essentially not the best ones or the world might be different).
Other form could be aristocracy (in the sense of "the best", but one has to define what is the best), epistocracy (power to people with skill in a topic, so science to scientists etc), philosopher king (what Plato described, can be seen as Marcus Aurelius), elective monarchy (Poland Lithuania) et caetera. Nothing prevents to invent new ones as well.
I'd add that ""democracy"" is now showing sign of weakness after only a century or two at best... So maybe it is time to wonder where does it fail and why.
Concerning China. If something like this happen (I'd say that France has "democratically" elected people who are enslaving them and who are destroying their rights for 50 years), then I'd like to remember that people always have the power and aren't depending or at the mercy of anyone for violence and tyranny can't stand on the long term. It is the people who are willingly giving a tyrant power and a very interesting book about the topic is "Discourse on Voluntary Servitude" by Etienne de La Boétie.