Illustration: Liu Rui/GT

"Chinese are the single biggest threat to the national security of the US. Do you know what we just did? As usual, we bring them over here and teach a bunch of Chinamen, uh, Chinese people, how to do computers, and then they go back to China and hack us." This comment from Bob Beckel of Fox News on a recent talk show program was enough to drive many Chinese in the US and elsewhere mad. Myself included.

But what makes me shudder is not the forbidden word "Chinamen," which many Chinese protesters are focused on and Beckel apologized for amid rising criticism. Rather, it is the part that he refused to apologize for, the part that basically smeared the reputations of all American-trained Chinese computer engineers.

Derogatory words like "Chinaman" play a role in modern racial conflict. It is unfortunate. But in many cases, the problem is caused by ignorance, particularly among an older generation who grew up when such references were acceptable.

The damage is usually limited, and protests against these words and the persons who used them mainly serve as an educational effort, or a deterrent, to prevent more serious and harmful discrimination from happening.

Comedian Rosie O'Donnell's mimicking in 2006 of a Chinese newscast by repeating the words "ching chong" is an example.

She thought the words sounded funny, but didn't know their connotations. She apologized, and doesn't seem to have said anything like it on TV since.

Sometimes, people can get overly sensitive and protest when the speaker was unconsciously crossing a line.

Some of the meanings of these words have changed over time. And because of this, they can sometimes even provide edgy inspiration to young creative minds.

For example, the Pan Asian Repertory Theatre in New York presented a play called Ching Chong Chinaman in 2010. It drew some ire from older Chinese, but the playwright, a second generation Chinese in her late 20s, was merely trying to add some black humor to her work.

And a band of six Asian American young men in Oregon are named "The Slants." When their attempt to trademark the name was declined because "slant" is a disparaging term for Asians, they even went to court to fight for it.

Nonetheless, Beckel's comment doesn't belong in the same category. Said on a major TV news channel and directly targeted against the many Chinese who contribute a lot to the US technology industry, it has a much more dangerous feel to it.

Beckel's delusion is clearly related to the escalating conflict between China and the US in cyberspace. The conflict exploded when, in May, the US charged five Chinese military officers with cyber spying. China responded by banning State-owned enterprises from hiring US consultant companies who, the government warned, might be spies.

For those who want to be a judge on this issue, the New Yorker's James Surowiecki's recent commentary piece might be able to provide some reference. The title of the article is "Spy vs. Spy."

Espionage remains an unspoken common practice in today's global village. Witness the recent spats over spying between Germany and the US. And diplomatic wrestling like this will always happen.

It does hurt the relationships between the countries involved. As it stays on the diplomatic level, the damage can be controlled. But once media personalities start to throw darts at a broad target like Beckel did, it can easily stir up a wider racist ugliness.

The last time this happened was in 1994, when CBS's Chinese American anchor Connie Chung said on her show: "Every day, planeloads of Chinese citizens arrive legally in the US, ordinary people. But to the Chinese government, some of them may be future spies, who a few years down the road will be activated to steal America's military and technological secrets, whether they want to or not."

That was a time when clouds were looming over the Sino-US relationship after the US angered China by deciding to sell 150 F-16 fighter planes to the island of Taiwan, and passed an act in 1992 that defined Hong Kong as a distinct territory from China, and accused the Chinese ship Yinhe of carrying chemical materials to Iran.

A few months after Chung's controversial show was aired, there was a standoff in the Yellow Sea between a US aircraft carrier and a Chinese nuclear submarine.

This time, the relationship between the two countries is again at a low. If it keeps going in this direction, no one will need comments from the likes of Beckel for attitudes to Chinese living in the US and Americans living in China to deteriorate fast.

The author is a New York-based journalist. rong_xiaoqing@hotmail.com