All that changed May 7 when four U.S. laser-guided bombs destroyed the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. Now the mob surrounding the U.S. Embassy in Beijing is yelling, "Kill the big noses!"

How does a nation that spends billions of dollars each year on intelligence gathering mistake the Chinese Embassy for the Yugoslav Federal Directorate of Supply and Procurement? If this is what passes for "intelligence," we're getting a lousy return on our investment.

The mistaken attack on China's diplomatic compound in Belgrade plays directly into the hands of hard-liners in Beijing who are already using it to whip up nationalist fever and to blunt government reforms. It now looks extremely unlikely that China will agree to market-opening reforms sought by the West in exchange for membership in the World Trade Organization. Beijing also moved quickly to cut off arms control and human-rights negotiations.

For the many U.S. high-tech companies with joint ventures in China, all bets may be off. The U.S. State Department is warning Americans to stay away from China "until the situation stabilizes." Americans now in China are being told to avoid crowds and stay close to home.

A veteran of Tiananmen Square told The Washington Post during the riots in front of the U.S. Embassy compound in Beijing that Chinese leaders could quickly raise a volunteer army to support the Serbs. With the 10th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre less than a month away, the rebel-turned-businessman said the bombing in Belgrade takes the heat off the government as concerns about commemorating the dead of Tiananmen are engulfed by Chinese nationalism. The 50th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, in October, now looks to be a nationalist and anti-American rally not seen there since the depths of the Cold War.

Back in Washington, the China bashers on Capitol Hill have their wish. U.S.-Chinese relations, already highly politicized, are now at the breaking point. The Clinton administration's strategic engagement with Beijing is a dead letter, and the misguided U.S. foreign policy establishment led by Madeline Albright is now in a shambles.

All this may serve to shut U.S. businesses-EE Times among them-out of the Chinese market. More importantly, it effectively ends hope for economic and political reform in China. A Chinese government fearful of social unrest among the growing number of its unemployed and disaffected citizens will use the bombing in Belgrade for its own narrow purposes, drowning out reformers.

Although the fever of the protests may have cooled for the moment, the demands of the mob to "kill the big noses!" will only grow louder in the dangerous days ahead.