Allegations of Chinese espionage to obtain American military secrets have one Ohio State sophomore concerned about returning home to Taipei, Taiwan.Tai-An Chen, an electrical engineering major, will return this summer to teach English and visit relatives. But he knows tensions between Taiwan and the Chinese government have some political analysts speculating that Taiwan’s security may be jeopardized. “The whole idea is nerve wracking,” Chen said. “I have aunts, uncles and cousins there.”A May 25 Congressional report claims that China has stolen design secrets for all seven American nuclear warheads. If this is true, China’s military could be on level ground with that of the United States.”It’s just one more thing to add to the fire,” said Laura Luehrmann, a doctoral candidate in political science.”It is having a high-level impact on U.S.-China relations. Bill Cohen, U.S. Secretary of Defense, has canceled his trip to China in June,” Luehrmann said.Luehrmann also said the ease with which China retrieved this information is much a result of the U.S. government allowing technological business transactions to go on without national security checks. Robert Suettinger, of the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., which conducts studies on foreign policy, American politics and economics, said the report’s implications shook up the capital. Suettinger spoke at OSU to discuss his studies on U.S. and China intelligence agencies last week at the Mershon Center. “This is the worst compromise of American weapons’ secrets since the 1940s. It hit Washington like a bombshell,” Suettinger said. However, not everything in the report is confirmed, he said. There is “a fair amount of speculation.”Suettinger said that the report’s accusations date back to the 1980s. “It was moved along by revelation of a series of security leaks at national laboratories,” Suettinger said. “Four of them included nuclear weapons research.”While it is pretty much certain that China has engaged in espionage, it is unclear just how much information China has obtained, Suettinger said.”The Chinese (military) has made progress but has not deployed a system much more threatening to the U.S. than what they’ve had for the last two decades or so.”The potential is there perhaps, but in highly technological strategic weapons they’re nowhere near a match for the U.S.,” Suettinger said.Maoyen Chi, a doctoral candidate in microbiology from Suzhou, China, said the allegations are overblown.”The Western media never sees anything positive in China,” he said.Chi said the entire situation revolving around espionage is bad politics. “Everybody is spying on everybody. In the long run, it will hurt both countries (U.S. and China),” Chi said.Despite his concerns about returning home, Chen said even with increasing tensions, he isn’t afraid to go.”At this time, I don’t really see anything that’s going to be detrimental,” Chen said.