I can't even begin explaining how misinformed westerners are on China. dragonkeeper999 puts it very succinctly. You see, for Chinese people pragmatism and order rules all. When you look at Chinese history it is characterised by relentless civil uprisings and large scale foreign invasions (most notably Britain and Japan) perhaps due to being inadequately resourced. You can understand why they don't want to revert to that state of affairs again. Indeed, during the 19th century upheaval reached its peak and that's when the revolutionary fever kicked in towards the turn of the 20th century, another turbulent time in history.
But it wasn't always like this. In fact for much of history China has been in another league in terms of innovation and economic activity compared to the western world; during the Tang dynasty China commanded up to 58% of the world's GDP and in the Song dynasty as large as 80%. Their infrastructure in some cities was impeccable - as elegant as the streets of Venice with facilities enjoyed by many. That's not to mention their excellence in poetry and philosophy either! I think we were meanwhile figuring out how to live in mud huts?
What irritates me the most is the western fixation on China's (often small) problems that make westerners look, frankly, privileged and ignorant. Take your pick: Yulin dog festival, smog in Beijing, Tiananmen square. Time and time again these things surface, indeed on a yearly basis. There is absolutely nothing positive about China or the wonderful people that live there. Instead they're depicted as environment hating (even though Chinese people, per capita, do far more good for the environment than their western counterparts), untrustworthy 'communists'. It's just totally wrong and such a shame because the Chinese people deserve so much more. I can totally understand why they react negatively on social media to provocation.