Beijing (CNN) -- Over the past few days, the families of the 154 Chinese passengers who were aboard Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 have been oscillating between grief and visceral anger as the search for the plane carrying their loved ones continues. In emotional scenes at a Beijing hotel where many of them have been staying for more than two weeks, some distraught relatives collapsed and had to be taken to hospital. Other relatives angrily defied police admonishments and marched to the Malaysian Embassy in Beijing earlier this week. Wearing white T-shirts emblazoned with "Pray for MH370," they shouted their demand for "evidence" the airliner ended its journey in the southern Indian Ocean, and called the Malaysians "liars," accusing the authorities in Kuala Lumpur of withholding information.
@highlight
Relatives of Chinese passengers on MH370 have been holed up in Beijing hotel
@highlight
Many have taken their anger to Malaysian embassy amid lack of information
@highlight
Street protests largely banned in China amid fears of social unrest
@highlight
China also keen not to alienate itself from Malaysia, an ASEAN partner
Gao said it's "understandable" this tragic incident "may have caught the @placeholder government unprepared, and the magnitude of the incident may have overwhelmed them."
"It is an increasing concern ... that the @placeholder side may not have been most upfront and transparent from the very beginning," Gao said.
Such a perception, he said, may be changing the attitude of many people towards the way the @placeholder government has handled this incident.