No military action in the Taiwan Strait, as they felt they had been led to expect. No shoot-down, no missile attack, no fighter jet flying next to Ms. Pelosi’s plane. Just some denunciations and announcements of military exercises.

Many people complained that they felt let down and lied to by the government. “Don’t put on a show of power if you don’t have the power,” wrote a Weibo user with the handle @shanshanmeiyoulaichi2hao shortly after the flight’s landing. “What a loss of face!”

The user went on to say that the government didn’t deserve the people who had waited for hours to witness how history could be made. “A great nation. How ironic!”

The strong online emotions showed the complexity of the public opinion that Beijing will have to manage if it decides to invade Taiwan. And they demonstrated how nationalism is a double-edged sword that can be easily turned against the government. Some antiwar comments that managed to evade the censors, if only for a moment, also opened a window onto the psychological impact of the Ukrainian war on the Chinese public.