Abstract

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization bombing of China's embassy in Yugoslavia on May 7, 1999, triggered a sharp reaction from the Chinese government, and for three consecutive days after May 8 there were violent anti-American demonstrations, with the emergence of a powerful wave of anti-American nationalism among the populace in mainland China. The May Eighth Incident was the most important political incident in China in the 1990s. Not only will this incident have a major impact on relations between China and the United States, and among China and its peripheral countries and regions, but the nationalism it has triggered will be a constant and major political factor with far-reaching effects on the political culture and political options in the era of "post-omnipotentism"