When Chinese officials tell James Busis that Jews are shrewd businessmen and control the American economy and government, it's not anti-Semitism but a heartfelt compliment.

But this naive view can backfire, as when the Chinese blame "Jewish control" of the Federal Reserve Board for U.S. pressure to raise the value of the yuan against the dollar to narrow the trade imbalance between the two countries.

The same belief in Jewish power, with its mixture of awe and resentment, prevails in Japan, Korea and much of Asia, says Busis, who last year became director of the Washington-based Asian Pacific Institute of the American Jewish Committee (AJC).

A native of Pittsburgh and long active in its Jewish community, Busis, 52, came to the job with an extensive background as an American business executive in Japan, Indonesia and Singapore.

He believes that this kind of experience is vital to an understanding of his "territory," which encompasses most of eastern Asia, India, the Pacific Islands, Australia and New Zealand.

"We're approaching the Asian century, when the region's dominant economic power will be followed by political and military influence," he said during a visit to Los Angeles. "These developments will impact all other countries, including Israel."

In contrast to dealing with Europe and the Middle East, eastern Asia comes without the baggage of traditional anti-Semitism, despite a larger concentration of Muslims in the region than in the Middle East.

There was a rash of anti-Semitic publications and comic books in the 1980s and '90s, particularly in Japan, but this "fad," fed by complete ignorance of Judaism, has largely disappeared, said Neil Sandberg, the AJC's veteran Asia expert and a consultant to the institute.

Sandberg also encountered the delusional Asian estimate of Jewish clout, and a concomitant conviction that he, as representative of an influential Jewish organization, could dictate American policy.

When Sandberg demurred that American Jews weren't all that powerful, his listeners smiled politely while remaining unconvinced.

Busis points to three segments of Asian society with their different views of the West.

    * The large Muslim population, which listens to Al Jazeera and is influenced by the attitudes of its Middle Eastern co-religionists, tends to be anti-Israel and suspicious of the United States.

    * A modern business-oriented class, which is generally pro-Western and eager to trade with America. Its members admire President Bush for his free trade policy and access to American markets.

    * A conservative segment that identifies with the Third World, especially in India, still bears resentment toward its former colonial masters, and is suspicious of the United States and Israel.

Although AJC's main overseas activity is still oriented toward Europe, with several offices there, it has one Asian office in Mumbai (formerly Bombay). The organization is increasingly cultivating Asian opinion leaders.

Under AJC's long-running Project Interchange program, the Asia Pacific Institute took two groups to Israel last year.

One was for Indian Muslim leaders, who participated in a weeklong educational seminar, the second for a delegation of Indonesian journalists.

AJC's outreach to the Orient has been funded mainly by Pacific-oriented Jewish businessmen in Los Angeles, but New Yorker Marvin Kimmel recently signed a check for $2.5 million in support of the Asia Pacific Institute.

-- Tom Tugend, Contributing Editor