I don't think there would be imminent war anyways. China is too good at their current strategy to start the war.

But, another spin on this, yes, destabilizing governments of "allies" would be bad prior to war, however, how supportive would the countries be against China? Would Germany help much? Would New Zealand take that risk, with their proximity to China? And so forth. Perhaps the cleaning house are of people who are more sympathetic to China. Someone would need to look into this more to verify.