No hope on that line bro. And they are not really liberals in my mind. There are always "intellectuals" in China who are anti-establishment. 中国历史上从来不缺汉奸。而且很多是知识分子。
And I don't think US and China will wage a head-on full-fledged war. Many countries hope so, e.g., Japan, Korea, Australia, Vietnam, etc. However, American capitalists and Chinese communists do have something in common: they all hate wealth destruction.
I have something in my mind in the past few years: finally US and China are approaching equilibrium in western terms or 阴阳互动 in Chinese terms. There is not going to be either WWIII or Code War 2.0. It is going to be a Cold Peace 1.0 for decades to come.