An outbreak of student-led protests across China has sent a sharp message to Chinese General Secretary Xi Jinping and the broader population, according to analysts and some dissidents.

“We haven’t seen that since 1989,” said American Enterprise Institute nonresident fellow Michael Mazza, referring to the Tiananmen Square protests. “The fact that this could happen in an environment in which the tools of government surveillance and control are so much more pervasive and effective than they were in 1989 is a really striking and really interesting development.”