BEIJING--Few places better illustrate the love-hate nature of U.S.-China relations than this city's harried U.S. Embassy.

The building is besieged by angry Chinese, but instead of shouting "Yankee Go Home," they want to go to the U.S. and are upset that an increasing number of them are being refused visas. The tiff has set off Chinese chest-thumping about discriminatory policies and set U.S. diplomats scrambling to keep the controversy from damaging bilateral relations.

The problem stems from an increasing number of Chinese who use nonimmigrant visas--such as student, business or tourist visas--to immigrate illegally to the U.S. While exact figures aren't available, the U.S. estimates that 50,000 Chinese overstay their visas or otherwise enter the U.S. illegally each year. U.S. Embassy officials in Beijing say they received a stiff warning two years ago from U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service officers back home to tighten screeening procedures and let fewer visa cheaters through.

So about 30 percent o fvisas this year are being refused, a sharp increase over last year's 23 % refusal rate and a huge shift from the early 1990's, when most visas were routinely granted. Meanwhile, budget cutbacks had left the number of visa officers unchanged at five during the past six years, even as the workload tripled and the embassy became one of the busiest in the world. Cramped quarters meant scores of applicants lined up in the rain, snow, or blistering heat. Inside, visa officers engaged in bureaucratic triage, neglecting such tasks as answering mail and faxes.

Only recently did the embassy win badly needed funding to build a larger waiting hall and hire three new visa officers, who began work last month. but despite the improvements, the tightened visa rules have triggered a minor backlash in beijing. Visa applicants boil at what has become a cursory two-minute interview to decide their case. "American will dis' you without discussion." blared a recent healine in China Business Times, a state-owned newspaper. Internet chat rooms analyze the embassy's various visa officers. Some chat room users think ethnicity plays a role in the refusal rate.

Some of the refusals do seem puzzling: Chinese students who can document full scholarships to U.S. schools are getting turned down, though none were willing to be quoted in this article for fear of ruining what chances they have left of obtaining visas. Established businesspeople say they, too, have been rejected by greenhorn visa officers.

Embassy officials conceded a problem exists. In one embarrassing case, they say an official of Haier Group, China's biggest refrigerator and air-conditioner manufacturer, was denied a visa because a staffer didn't recognize the company's name. But the diplomats say their job is complicated by a surge of phony applications from managers of bankrupt state enterprises trying to leave town. And the fact that so few Chinese return from abroad after studying--only 5% in the first two years after studying--has made visa officers suspicious of the most heart-rending promise to return home.

Embassy officials also say China's media are partly to blame for the bad feelings. Few Chinese come to the embassy with all the required paperwork, resulting in repeated trips. but efforts to publicize requirements have been blocked by China's propagandists, the diplomats say. The embassy hopes in will have a chance to air its case in the Chinese media soon. Says a U.S. Embassy official: "It's been a lousy situation, but it's slowly changing."

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