Tainted Perceptions asserts that beginning with the pre-Tiananmen Square incident of 1989, American popular and institutional images of China focused on the reformist nature of the government, but following the military crackdown in June 1989, this optimism dwindled and resulted in the creation of an ambivalent cross-cultural atmosphere toward the Chinese for the next half decade. When Chinese leaders decided to undertake military exercises in the Taiwan Strait in mid-1995, America's perception of the PRC swung even further in a distinctly negative direction; an event that marked the outset of a three year period during which Chinese military modernization and economic expansion were viewed as a direct threat to the international political hegemony of the United States.