Baker's Tough China Task

THE United States secretary of state is about to test the Bush administration's policy of restraint toward China firsthand. When James Baker III steps off the plane in Beijing tomorrow, he faces the difficult task of trying to justify that policy by securing a tangible agreement of some sort from the hard-line leaders of the world's last major communist power. The Bush administration has resisted efforts by Congress to punish China for its arms exports, human rights violations, and discriminatory trade practices toward the US. But a wary Chinese leadership, feeling put upon, is unlikely to yield much in the way of concessions on these issues. Stories, Page 3