MUNCIE, Ind. -- America must salvage its relationship with China to avoid the development of a volatile and hostile country in the next century, says a Ball State University expert on Far East economics.

The relationship between the United States and China has taken nearly two decades to build, overcoming years of mistrust between the two nations.

But recent allegations of Chinese espionage and the accidental bombing of the Chinese embassy in Yugoslavia could be quickly damaged, said Chu-yuan Cheng, an economics professor.

The accidental bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade is a regrettable tragedy required a NATO sincere and open apology to the Chinese people as well as prompt compensation for human and material losses, he said.

However, American outrage over alleged Chinese espionage may be overblown, Cheng said.

"The Cox report on Chinese military espionage may serve as a timely warning for the U.S. to tighten military technology controls because most of the countries in the world, not just China, want to acquire U.S. military know-how," he said. "To depict China as an impending threat is not borne out by the evidence."

Cheng said that the U.S. has superiority in the nuclear weapons area when compared to China. While the U.S. possesses some 600 intercontinental ballistic missiles, China has about 20. The total number of warheads of the U.S. is estimated at between 6,000 to 7,000 while the Chinese may have about 400.

The next step in helping bridge differences between the two countries may come with resuming intensive negotiations over China's bid to enter the World Trade Organization as the two countries meet to discuss the mistaken bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade.

U.S. Trade representatives said the Clinton administration expects a re-engagement with the Chinese in a number of areas, including the negotiations to remove Chinese barriers to American exports in return for U.S. support for China's bid to join the Geneva-based WTO.

Trade talks will resume this week after a meeting demanded by the Chinese in which U.S. officials will provide a more detailed explanation of the tragic bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade.

Working with the Chinese to develop the nation’s economy would keep its leaders from falling back on old-style Stalinist communism, Cheng said.

"As China makes great strides toward a market economy, any disruption in commercial and cultural relations between the two countries can only play into the hands of China’s hard liners," Cheng said. "A stable and open China will become a significant potential market for the industrialized world while an unstable and stagnant China with a population of 1.3 to 1.6 billion would pose the world’s most volatile factor in the 21st century."

(NOTE TO EDITORS: For more information, contact Cheng by e-mail at ccheng@bsu.edu or by phone at (765) 285-5366.)