That's the problem right there. If Xi wants only his people then he has to give up a bunch of people more qualified but not necessarily exactly within his circle. Otherwise he has to deal with people outside his faction. The real shockwave is that meritocracy is no longer important, and opens the door for very very bad things to happen in the long term. The only other explanation is that ground force heavy means an internally focused PLA.
Having Xi in place for 3 terms may have been an emergency situation but now we're seeing complete breakdown of internal norms. When Xi leaves office, at best we'll see a Stalin-Khruschev transition, at worst, a Brezhnev-Gorbachev one.
As far as I know, the joint operation procedures between all 3 branches should already be very strong. In an actual war, Army operations would take front and center with other branches serving to support the ground force advance/defense anyways.
Putting focus on ground force make sense when China is facing a threat of invasion. If the country is mobilized, then the ground force will be the branch that absorbs most of the new recruitment. That means they need better institutions, more attention and more funding, so they can during an emergency absorb more troops.
Besides the contingency of an American incursion in the East, China must also not rule out the chance of an apocalyptic sized ground war in Europe, if NATO decides to counter invade Russia and the Donbass.
And in the event of an US invasion, not only Taiwan Island needs ground force attention, but if SK and Japan doesn't throw off the local occupying US forces, it is tactically expedient for China to counter invade SK and Japan.
China already sits on a very well equipped ground force, with extra attention and funding, this force could be able to both deter NATO in Europe and threaten Asian US puppets with liberation if they participate in any illegal wars launched by their overlord.
