Rising Sino-US tension over this week's air mishap will not threaten or inconvenience Americans living in China as tensions did after the 1999 Belgrade embassy bombing because Chinese people view the two incidents differently, local Americans say. 'There's a separation between me being an American citizen and being a member of the military,' said Larry Ferguson, 22, who has lived in Beijing since August and was staying in a Chinese college dormitory when the embassy was bombed. 'This has been nothing in comparison.' All week US and Chinese officials have been trading barbs in the biggest incident since the bombing. On Wednesday, four people protested at the US ambassador's house in Beijing until police stopped them, according to Reuters. But that was the only demonstration. No one has menaced the embassy, nor has the embassy issued safety advice for the several thousand Americans registered in China, said spokesman John Berry. In 1999, people mobilised by the Chinese Government stormed the embassy gate, breaking windows with rocks. Americans who work or study in Beijing say Chinese colleagues have asked their views on Sunday's mid-air collision, but did not make any further comments. Americans say their Chinese friends and peers see the air tangle strictly as a military and political issue. Chinese people reacted more strongly to the bombing because it represented an act of war and killed three civilians. An environmental consultant in Beijing said relations were fine between the five Americans and five Chinese people in his office. 'Most people are just like, 'oh, China and the US are going at it again',' he said. After Nato planes bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade in May 1999, Americans and other foreigners were refused service by some restaurants and taxi drivers. Some people were pushed out of taxis or spat on. Beijing University had to call a meeting to remind foreign students they were still welcome to study there, one student said.