26 { China’s Quest
For several years after the Beijing Massacre of June 1989, the CCP clamped
down on any autonomous political activity. By the 2000s, however, the CCP
had adapted to a new pattern of interaction with spontaneous and indepen-
dent nationalist political activity, including especially new web-based nation-
alism. Autonomous nationalist political activity—demonstrations, online
petitions, blog activity—was now sometimes tolerated, and even occasionally
rewarded with government acceptance of some of the demands advanced by
that activism. Yet activists understood the limits of CCP tolerance, and the
state retained the capacity to end this activity when it deemed it necessary
to protect social order or important diplomatic objectives. What had devel-
oped was interaction between bottom-up nationalist activism and top-down
party guidance of mass participation in political activity. In this fashion, the
party diverts grievances from itself onto foreign enemies, especially Japan
and the United States, while legitimizing itself as defender of China’s interest
and honor.^27