Depends on how you define nationalistic. The hundreds of thousands of students who protested at the Tiananmen Square could also be considered nationalistic in some sense of the words.
Keep in mind that when Tiananmen Square occurred, China was still a Soviet-style backwater with numerous spectacular failures at modernization. People were frustrated, oppressed, and starving. Now they're just oppressed - and that makes a huge difference.
The Chinese are nationalistic in the sense that they will defend their government, however imperfect they perceive it to be, because the alternative is treasonous (i.e., to side with foreign interests and ideology).
This is something Westerners find difficult to understand - but is very much rooted deeply in Chinese culture.