A prep course for the month-long World Cup soccer tournament, a worldwide pheno

ses , Clinton has dropped an assumption implicit in his original policy : that c

ooperation with China on regional and world issues is best obtained with a China

 devoted to basic human rights . Instead of trying to force liberalization in Ch

ina with some of the most powerful tools available to the United States , Clinto

n 's hope now is that active engagement with China coupled with the theoreticall

y liberalizing effects of free market measures eventually will produce a less au

tocratic China . While pledging to continue to pressure China on human rights , 

Clinton couched his change of heart in economic and geopolitical terms , citing 

U.S. interest in profiting from Asia 's economic boom and thwarting North Korea 

's nuclear weapons program . Good relations with China are pivotal for both . ``

 I believe .. . this is in the strategic , economic and political interests of t

he United States , '' Clinton said of his policy shift . This is far from the fi

rst time that idealistic leanings failed to survive in policy . The conflict bet

ween strategic imperatives on the one hand and idealistic approaches on the othe

r have undermined initial Clinton policies on Bosnia , Somalia and Haiti . In th

e weeks leading up to the China decision , Clinton was bombarded with advice fro

m influential members of Congress not to discard a key relationship with a major

 world power . In practice , human rights pressure appears to be most applicable

 when the cost to American interests , particularly economic , is little . Say N

icaragua or Argentina , for instance , but not China , or for that matter , oil-

rich Saudi Arabia . The decision to renew China 's most favored nation ( MFN ) s

tatus was pressed on Clinton by groups whose efforts complemented one another . 

American businessmen , eager to cash in on China 's dynamic markets as well as m

aintain access to China 's low cost labor , pressed for Clinton to lift the trad

e threat . They were backed by economic advisors to the president who openly cal

led on him to extend trade privileges unconditionally . At the Pentagon and with

in the State Department , fears grew that China would be lost as a strategic par

tner if China 's MFN status were revoked . The Defense Department worried about 

forefeiting contact with the world 's largest army . American diplomats were see

king China 's help to press North Korea to end its nuclear weapons program . The

y also want China to sign onto a global nuclear test ban treaty as well as stop 

selling chemical waeapons technology and missile equipment to conflictive Third 

World countries . Since March , no top administration official supported revocat

ion of MFN . Recently , Winston Lord , assistant secretary of state for East Asi

a and Pacific affairs , hinted that the adminstration needed to reassess its pri

orities in Asia . In a memo to Secretary of State Christopher , he warned of a `

` malaise '' in relations with East Asia , stemming in part from the dispute ove

r human rights with Beijing . `` Asians and others .. . criticize us for tactics

 that destabilize relationships which are central to the region 's peace and sta

bility , '' he wrote . Clinton 's decision to back away from the trade threat in

 effect exposed a major shortcoming of his China policy . His ultimate goal was 

to encourage China 's integration into the world economy and international diplo

macy , and through human rights , its adherence to shared values . The threat to

 withdraw China 's MFN status , the basis of trade with the United States , pitt

ed two vehicles for China 's integration against each other . If China failed on

 human rights , trade privileges would be withdrawn . If trade was disrupted , c

ooperation on other issues probably would have disintegrated and the adverse con

sequences for China 's economy might have resulted in intensified repression . C

linton had put the fate of his entire China policy at the mercy of Chinese decis

ions on one aspect of it , human rights . `` In effect , '' China expert A . Doa

k Barnett said in a lecture last month , Clinton 's threat `` made the entire U.

S. relationship hostage to Beijing 's willingness to fulfill specific U.S. deman

ds related to human rights . '' Last May , when the threat was made , the risk w

as seen as slight . The conditions were designed to be easy to meet . But by lat

e summer , some State Department officials already were worrying about the effec

tiveness of the U.S. approach , and in the autumn the administration began a ser

ies of meetings with Chinese leaders , including military-to-military contact , 

which culminated in a summit in November between Clinton and Chinese President J

iang Zemin in Seattle . But China 's further gestures were slow in coming , and 

when they arrived , they were eclipsed by high-profile political crackdowns , pa

rticularly on the eve of Christopher 's visit to China in March to plead for mor

e progress on human rights . Intelligence analysts cautioned that China did not 

take Clinton 's threat seriously and could be expected to make no more than mino

r gestures .

 A Canadian climber who collapsed near the summit of Mount Everest was carried o

ff the mountain in a dramatic rescue effort Thursday . John McIsaac , 39 , of Ca

nmore , Alberta , was reported resting at the expedition base camp , suffering f

rom pneumonia and pulmonary edema , a potentially fatal altitude sickness in whi

ch the lungs fill with fluid . He was being monitored by three doctors , who wer

e to decide Friday morning whether to evacuate him to Nepal 's capital , Katmand

u . McIsaac , seeking to become the first Canadian to ascend Everest without bot

tled oxygen , climbed to within 1,150 feet of the summit Wednesday when he was f

orced back by exhaustion . Within hours , he began showing signs of pulmonary ed

ema . Unable to walk , McIsaac was carried down the world 's highest mountain Th

ursday in a heavy vinyl Gamov bag , which acts as a portable compression chamber

 , according to Maggie Calloway , an expedition spokeswoman in Vancouver who spo

ke to the climbing party by cellular phone . McIsaac was reportedly suffering fr

om exhaustion and frostbitten fingers when he gave up his 16-hour final assault 

on the summit . Earlier , another climber on the Canadian expedition , Denis Bro

wn , also abandoned his summit attempt . The Canadians were using the northern ,

 or Tibetan , route up the mountain , which straddles the border of Tibet and Ne

pal . The 29,028-foot Everest first was climbed by Tenzing Norkay and Sir Edmund

 Hillary in 1953 . More than 30 climbers have reached the top without bottled ox

ygen since 1978 , when it was first accomplished . The death toll of Everest cli

mbers is believed to exceed 120 .

 WASHINGTON The House Appropriations Committee Thursday endorsed a plan that wou

ld give federal workers a 2 percent pay raise and half of their scheduled `` loc

ality pay '' next year . The pay plan , presented by Rep. Steny Hoyer , D-Md. , 

would provide $ 1.8 billion for federal salaries next year , less than the $ 3.5

 billion needed to fully fund federal pay but $ 700 million more than recommende

d in President Clinton 's fiscal 1995 budget . `` We don't have the money to mak

e a better deal , '' Hoyer said in an interview , referring to reduced spending 

levels caused by deficit-reduction mandates. ` ` .. . My position has generally 

been with the federal employees , I want to see you treated fairly , which is to

 say I don't want to see others in the private and public sector going off ( and

 winning raises ) while you 're squeezed . I don't think that 's fair . On the o

ther hand , if everybody is taking a notch in on their belt , we will join in . 

That 's fair . '' Hoyer told the committee his compromise would create `` a net 

average of 2.6 percent '' across government , the same percentage that House pan

els have scheduled for members of the armed forces next year . Federal agencies 

would absorb the cost of the pay increase in their fiscal 1995 appropriations . 

That , Rep. Joseph M. McDade , R-Pa. , said , would likely require some agencies

 to lay off workers in order to stay within their budgets . McDade said that req

uiring agencies to find $ 700 million , given the tightness of their budgets , `

` scares the life out of me . '' He told the commmittee that Office of Managemen

t and Budget Director Leon E. Panetta recently advised congressional leaders tha

t some agencies might be forced into layoffs if required to absorb the cost of f

uture pay raises . McDade offered an amendment to use unspent fiscal 1994 funds 

to finance next year 's pay raise , but his proposal was rejected on a 28-to-20 

vote . Hoyer said he did not believe the compromise pay plan would cause layoffs

 in government ranks , but conceded it is `` difficult to tell , '' in part beca

use Congress and the administration have mandated a workforce reduction of 272,9

00 employees over six years . The downsizing might even force agencies into layo

ffs , he suggested . Hoyer 's plan ensures that all civil-service workers white 

collar , blue collar and employees on special pay schedules will receive at leas

t a 2 percent pay raise next year . His proposal also keeps locality pay , which

 was opposed by the administration last year , viable for another year .

 A large , strange beast dug from deep in the past is showing that evolution ran

 faster and produced more variety 600 million years ago than anyone anticipated 

, scientists reported Thursday . Dating back to the early years of the Cambrian 

period up to 400 million years before the dinosaurs the beast was a 6-foot-long 

ocean-dwelling predator with formidable front pincers . It is roughly reminiscen

t of a giant lobster . According to the team of Chinese and Swedish researchers 

studying the newest fossil evidence , found in 1990-92 in China , the beast appa

rently hid in mud on the sea floor while it awaited its prey . The new evidence 

is important because it `` implies that considerable evolution took place during

 a time interval even shorter than previously suspected , '' said Jun-yuan Chen 

, Lars Ramskold and Gui-qing Zhou in the journal Science . Until now , it was th

ought such big , predatory creatures did not exist until millions of years later

 . The Cambrian period is remarkable for the rapidity with which multicelled spe

cies appeared , following billions of years of much slower evolution in single-c

ell creatures , such as algae . During the so-called `` Cambrian explosion , '' 

the ancestors of all species known today , and some that have since gone extinct

 , suddenly appeared . The animal the Chinese/Swedish team studied , `` Anomaloc

aris , '' is especially interesting because of its size , and because some parts

 found during the past 100 years were completely misidentified . Late in the las

t century , for example , leg-like appendages found in Canada 's famed Burgess s

hale deposit were thought to be the bodies of shrimp-like creatures . Worse , a 

jaw now known to be from Anomalocaris was listed as being from a jellyfish . `` 

The unfolding story of anomalocaridids is almost as unlikely as the animal itsel

f , '' said geologist Derek E.G. Briggs , of Bristol University , in England , w

ho was not a member of the research team . Such errors led to misinterpretations

 and deeper confusion . `` Although the appendages testified to a giant predator

 , '' Briggs said in Science , `` the nature of the animal remained a mystery un

til specimens preserving the body , with the limbs at the front of the head , we

re discovered in Burgess shale material '' about 10 years ago . Finally , a majo

r fossil discovery in southern China , at Chengjian in 1984 , was explored more 

thoroughly from 1990 to 1992 . The dig produced remarkable animal remains from t

he Cambrian period , especially because fine sediment had preserved the animals 

' soft , non-boney parts . Generally , soft tissues disappear , leaving only bon

es , or sometimes parts of an external skeleton . Briggs explained that `` just 

15 years ago the Cambrian animal Anomalocaris was little known , '' except from 

a few scattered , partial remains found in North America . But because of the sp

ectacular finds in China `` this creature turns out to be representative of a di

verse group of giant Cambrian predators that ranged as far as Europe , Australia

 and China . '' Paleontologist Andrew Knoll , at Harvard University , said Anoma

locaris has been known for a decade to be among the very few large predators in 

the Cambrian period . `` Now it can be seen to have originated earlier in the Ca

mbrian than would have been thought on the basis of the Burgess shale '' finding

s , he said . The newest data , Knoll added , `` suggests that most of the struc

tural innovations among animals occurred in a very short time , and this is one 

more piece of evidence . '' ( Optional add end ) Chen , Ramskold and Zhou explai

ned that `` Chengjiang yielded fossils of giant predators of three different kin

ds , including complete specimens of Anomalocaris . '' Details of the animal 's 

anatomy suggest it could swim rapidly to capture prey . It is believed to have l

asted at least several million years . The animals ' shape also suggests `` they

 may have spent much time partly buried or camouflaged in the bottom sediment , 

with stalked eyes protruding over the bottom and scanning the surroundings for s

wimming prey , '' the team said . In some examples , the animal 's intestinal tr

act can be seen , although it was not possible to identify the content of the gu

t . But the scientists suspect Anomalocaris may have preyed on primitive sea cre

atures such as large trilobites . Attacks by such large predators were `` inferr

ed from healed injuries on trilobites . '' Fossilized dung pellets perhaps from 

Anomalocaris contain the remains of trilobites and other primitive animals , and

 were also found in the Chengjiang deposit .

 WASHINGTON White House administrative chief David Watkins , a longtime aide to 

President Clinton who hails from his hometown of Hope , Ark. , resigned Thursday

 after officials learned he had taken a military helicopter earlier in the week 

to rural Maryland to play golf . Clinton , saying he was `` very upset '' when h

e learned about Watkins ' trip earlier in the day , disclosed his aide 's resign

ation during a news conference called to announce a decision on most-favored-nat

ion trading status for China . The cost of the round-trip was estimated at $ 5,0

00 . Clinton promised that the treasury will be fully reimbursed , though it was

 unclear whether the money would come from Watkins or other private sources . ``

 The taxpayers will be made whole , '' Clinton said . Watkins , former head of a

n advertising agency in Little Rock , Ark. , handled all the advertising for Cli

nton 's initial gubernatorial campaigns and was involved in his presidential cam

paign as well . He also has been a co-investor with the Clintons , particularly 

in a highly lucrative cellular telephone franchise . He now becomes the latest i

n a series of Arkansas friends of the Clintons whose actions have subjected the 

president to political embarrassment . Watkins might have gone unscathed but for

 editors of the Frederick ( Md. ) News-Post , who heard Tuesday that a White Hou

se helicopter was in their back yard , at the Holly Hills Country Club , and sen

t a photographer in hopes of catching a glimpse of Clinton . Instead , the paper

 got , and published in its Wednesday editions , a photograph of Watkins and two

 other White House aides dressed in golfing clothes and bearing their clubs walk

ing back onto the helicopter as Marines in full dress uniform stand by , salutin

g . At the time , the paper reported that officials of the country club had decl

ined to identify the visitors , but when the photograph was published , Republic

an staff members quickly recognized Watkins . The other two officials were Alpho

nso Maldon Jr. , head of the White House military office , and Navy Cmdr. Richar

d Cellon , the commanding officer at Camp David , Md. , the presidential retreat

 that is located not far from the country club . By Thursday , Maryland Rep. Ros

coe Bartlett , a Republican whose district includes the golf course , picked up 

the issue and congressional Republicans were in full cry , demanding hearings , 

an official investigation and a full accounting of all staff use of military air

craft . `` The photo of two Marine guards saluting a golf bag as it was carried 

up the helicopter stairs is truly a picture that 's worth a thousand words , '' 

Bartlett said . The golf course is about an 80-minute drive northwest of Washing

ton . The helicopter departed and returned from the Pentagon , which is about a 

10-minute drive south from Watkin 's residence in the Georgetown neighborhood of

 the capital . At the White House , officials reacted with anger and incredulity

 to Watkins ' actions , which were painfully reminiscent of the misuse of offici

al airplanes that led to the resignation of former Bush administration chief of 

staff John H. Sununu . Clinton , mindful of the Sununu episode , had issued a di

rective to White House staff early in his presidency intended to limit the abili

ty of senior government officials to use military transportation . As head of th

e White House administrative apparatus , the task of enforcing that directive fe

ll to Watkins . ( Optional add end ) The outing is the only time Watkins is know

n to have used military transportation for such purposes , White House officials

 said . Of the two other aides involved , Maldon has been reprimanded and reassi

gned for his role , said White House press secretary Dee Dee Myers . No action w

ill be taken against Cellon because it has been determined that he was not invol

ved in the decision to use the helicopter . Asked about the trip Wednesday , Whi

te House deputy press secretary Arthur Jones told The Baltimore Sun the three of

ficials had flown to the course to make preparations for Clinton to visit it thi

s weekend . Former President Bush golfed frequently at the course when staying a

t Camp David . But Thursday , Myers backed away from that account , saying Jones

 had answered the question in `` good faith '' based on a written statement from

 a Watkins deputy , but that `` I think we 've gone beyond that now . ''

 ORANGE , Calif. . Some people grumble at their local legislator in a letter . O

thers pick up the phone to gripe . But a disgruntled constituent of California A

ssemblyman Mickey Conroy has skipped the usual routes and spray painted an opini

on on the doors of the lawmaker 's district office . The message was the work of

 a tagger with a sense of the sardonic . The object of scorn was a bill Conroy i

ntroduced this week calling for paddlings of juveniles caught scrawling graffiti

 . That proposal has earned the Republican assemblyman nationwide media attentio

n and prompted public reaction ranging from hearty applause to outright ridicule

 . His most pointed critic was right back home in Orange County . Conroy 's staf

f arrived Thursday morning at the district office in Orange to discover the word

s `` Spank Me '' scrawled on both office doors by the taunting tagger . Police w

ere called in and promised a full investigation , but no suspects have been appr

ehended . Conroy was less than amused , but did not miss the opportunity to give

 his bill a boost . `` It 's disgusting , '' he said in a news release distribut

ed within hours of the discovery . `` However , if the punks who did this think 

that this is going to stop me from passing my paddle law , they 've got another 

thing coming. .. . If these criminals want a fight , I 'll give 'em one . '' Con

roy would not hazard a guess who might have been behind it . Local youths ? Disg

runtled Orange County Democrats ? `` I don't have any idea , '' he said Thursday

 . `` I 'm surprised it took them this long . We 've been expecting it . '' Conr

oy was happy that `` at least they 're aware of what I 'm trying to do , '' but 

lamented that it demonstrates once again `` just what the attitude of people is 

today . That 's why we need a little public humiliation like that proposed in my

 bill . '' The legislation , which faces stiff opposition in the Democrat-domina

ted California Legislature , calls for juveniles convicted of defacing or destro

ying property with graffiti to be punished by being struck as many as 10 times w

ith a wooden paddle wielded in court by a parent or a bailiff . ( Optional add e

nd ) Conroy 's employees weren't happy about the vandalism . The graffiti covere

d the middle section of the blue-and-terra-cotta-colored doors to the office , w

hich is tucked in the back of a shopping mall . The unevenly spray-painted `` Sp

ank Me '' message also covered part of the stucco . `` The owner of the complex 

is not happy , '' said Ann Conroy , the assemblyman 's wife . But she was not su

rprised by the graffiti message . Indeed , she said , `` I would think it would 

be a natural reaction ( to my husband 's proposal ) . It is targeted toward vand

als and I would think they would try to retaliate . '' Graffiti , she said , is 

common in the area . The mall and a business complex behind it have been constan

tly defaced by vandals , one of the reasons her husband 's bill has received an 

`` overwhelmingly positive response '' among his constituents , she said .

 SAN FRANCISCO In the dead of night early Thursday , San Francisco State Univers

ity painters escorted by riot police obliterated a controversial mural of Malcol

m X because it contained symbols considered by university officials to be anti-S

emitic . Arguing it was not an infringement of free speech to remove emblems of 

bigotry on artwork the university itself had commissioned , President Robert A .

 Corrigan ordered the mural removed after student leaders failed to take action 

themselves . The mural , painted on a university building and unveiled last week