US vs China War?

[Jacob]

And I'm not sure that you can be assured that Xi is taking real military readiness more seriously based on his purging patterns.  He's been purging at a steady rate for years, and while to an outsider it might look like he's trimming the fat off the military brass, his history is such that as soon as his 'readiness clique' tells him anything he doesn't already agree with, they'll likely be purged irrespective of what their loss will do to military coordination and cohesion.  The first and most important target of the PLA is always the Chinese people, and especially the Chinese Communist Party. 

You're right - we have plenty of evidence that Xi purges those who say things in public that he disagrees with.

But how much evidence do we have that he purges people for being incorrect within the confines of internal debate? I.e. what's the willingness of Xi and his clique to assimilate information that challenges their assessment of physical realities if it's presented to them in a way that does not cause a loss of face or amount to a political challenge?

My feeling is they're better at that, but I could be wrong.