Proving unfair treatment of CSFB "would be more difficult, because they could always claim they did it for some other reason," Aaron said.
US-China relations have been recovering since April, when China detained members of US Navy reconnaissance plane that collided with a Chinese military jet and made an emergency landing on China's Hainan Island.
Relations also suffered in 1999, when a commission chaired by Representative Christopher Cox, a Republican of California, described ties between Chinese espionage, US trade with China, and illegal Chinese campaign donations.
China's move against Credit Suisse may be a prelude to a wider action against US companies that help Taiwan in such areas as advanced computer exports and defense, said John Tkacik of the Heritage Foundation, a Washington think-tank with allies among conservative leaders.
"The next round, of course, would be Boeing, Lockheed- Martin, IBM, anybody that has any high-tech or defense dealings with Taiwan," Tkacik said.
China, however, would be cautious before moving against US companies outside financial services, said Roger Robinson, chairman of the William J. Casey Institute of International Economic Security.
China targeted the financial services industry in its public relations battle over Taiwan because the companies are so eager to enter the Chinese market, said Robinson, who served in the Reagan administration as senior director for International Economics Affairs at the National Security Council.
The main risk for China is in setting a precedent for employing capital market sanctions at a time when Congress is debating whether to establish such sanctions in the case of Sudan, Robinson said.
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