It’s hardly a secret that the Chinese government stokes nationalist sentiment as a useful way to get legitimacy and distract from domestic issues. The problem with doing this is that you start flirting with the possibility of violence.

This isn’t even the first time: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_anti-Japanese_demonstrati...

And the government is well aware of the dangers given that the opinions that they need to rein it in come from the same state media that promotes nationalist sentiment. Xi’s China in particular is far more nationalist than its predecessors.