The Chinese have added a new word to their English vocabulary in the last week.
It is a word they are flinging at anyone who cares to listen as they give vent to the anti-US sentiment that has been slowly building up since the start of the spy plane crisis on April 1st. This word is pouring from the mouths of students, screaming out from newspaper editorials and popping up in the daily analyses of the standoff on state television news programmes.
The word is hegemony.
According to the Collins Gem English dictionary, hegemony means "political domination". And it is the idea that America is going to bully China into a climb-down that is really getting up the noses of the Chinese.
Even in that most American of outlets in Beijing, Starbucks Cafe, the normally friendly Chinese staff who greet all and sundry with a big "Good day, welcome to Starbucks" are letting their views be known.
Thinking I was American, one of the part-time student staff yesterday let that word roll off his lips. "America's behaviour is hegemonistic. Why can't you just apologise and get this problem sorted out?" he asked. "We are not being unreasonable in asking for an apology. We were wronged."
Outside the Full Link Shopping Centre one Chinese man said one word would end the row, the word "sorry". "This is hegemony," he said. Asked what hegemony meant, he admitted he wasn't quite sure. "I think it means being a bully," he added.
Despite the rising anti-American feeling, Chinese principles haven't extended as far as boycotting their favourite US fast-food joints. A quick check of McDonald's, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Pizzahut outlets showed no drop in business.
In fact, the queue of Chinese customers outside the Pizza Hut restaurant on Jianguomenwai in central Beijing was as long as ever. The queue starts every day at around 5 p.m. and lasts until 8 p.m. A customer wanting to eat within those hours faces a minimum 30-minute wait.
The rise in anti-American feeling is due in part to the more high profile reportage in recent days from the state-controlled media. Details have been released on the missing Chinese pilot, Wang Wei and his wife's emotional letter to President Bush.
A reply from Mr Bush is on its way to the widow. It was passed on to the Chinese embassy in Washington for delivery to the Foreign Ministry in Beijing.
The China Daily ran a front-page story yesterday saying that the chances of Wang Wei surviving the crash of his jet "after being bumped by a US spy plane," were small. However, the director of the State Maritime Safety Administration, Mr Liu Shi, was quoted as saying: "Wang still has a slim chance to survive. We do expect a miracle to happen."
Everybody in Beijing, from political leaders to taxi-drivers to students to shop assistants, have been using similar analogies all week to justify why the Chinese fighter jets tailed the US surveillance plane.
"If someone came into my house to steal my goods what would you expect me to do but to defend myself," said one taxi driver. A shop assistant said if someone was making noise outside her home, of course she would go outside to see what was going on.
The first trade fall-off from the dispute emerged yesterday. The New York Times reported that Pentagon officials made a tactical decision to put off an announcement that they were going ahead with plans to buy more than half a million black berets for the US army from China.
Is this the "hegemonist" striking the first blow?
A USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll found 55 per cent of Americans considered the US detainees to be "hostages". President Bush and Vice-President Mr Dick Cheney have avoided describing the crew as hostages, with Mr Cheney saying in weekend interviews it was important to avoid such "hot button" words that could worsen tensions. About 68 per cent of the 1,025 adults polled said the United States was not at fault in the incident and 54 per cent said Washington should not bow to China's demand for an apology.
Singapore's Senior Minister Mr Lee Kuan Yew also yesterday urged the US to take an uncompromising stance towards China, according to a report in a German magazine. "Just as NATO opposed the Soviet Union and checked its hunger for power, China's power has to be contained," Mr Lee is quoted as saying in the business magazine Wirtschaftswoche.