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

ns . But on the national TV news here Friday night , the Foreign Ministry 's sta

tement came toward the program 's end after a long list of insignificant items i

ndicating the Chinese leadership may opt to not trumpet its MFN victory domestic

ally , likely because that could provoke questions here about human rights . `` 

The current situation offers a historical opportunity for the enhancement of Sin

o-American relations , '' Foreign Ministry spokesman Wu Jianmin said . But then 

he called on the United States to soon remove all remaining sanctions against Ch

ina including the weapons-import ban saying they held back good relations . A le

ading Western human-rights group Friday also had a mixed reaction , calling the 

president 's weapons ban as good for gun control in the United States but not fo

r human rights in China . `` No one can be opposed to a ban on exports of guns a

nd ammunition to this country , '' Sidney Jones , executive director of Human Ri

ghts Watch/Asia , said in a statement issued from New York . `` But as pressure 

on China , it 's meaningless . Is a ban on guns going to persuade China to relea

se jailed dissidents ? The only big winner from this decision is the Chinese gov

ernment . `` President Clinton has effectively removed all pressure on China to 

improve its human rights practices , '' Jones said . `` Clinton has left his adm

inistration looking vacillating and hypocritical , while the Chinese leadership 

.. . has emerged as hard-nosed , uncompromising and victorious . '' A Beijing di

ssident said Friday that U.S. pressure had only gained the release of certain we

ll-known dissidents from jail and had not really made much of a difference in th

e human-rights picture here . `` It 's no use if only prison stars are released 

, '' Ding Zilin said . `` What about those who are not famous ? There are still 

many people imprisoned . '' Ding 's teen-age son was among the hundreds killed i

n the military crackdown on the Tiananmen Square protests five years ago . The e

lderly professor has boldly carried on a one-woman campaign to compile a list of

 protesters killed by the Chinese army a campaign that has cost her job and brou

ght her almost constant surveillance by security agents . `` I welcome the help 

from other countries , '' she said . `` But the real help can only be done by ou

rselves. .. . I do see a bright future for human rights in China someday , but i

t will be very hard and slow . '' ( Optional add end ) U.S. businessman , howeve

r , foresee things getting much better for them very quickly . With the annual M

FN debate in the United States appearing to be coming to an end with Clinton 's 

decision to `` delink '' trade and political issues , the U.S. businessmen are e

xpecting rapid growth in U.S. investment here and in Sino-American trade . Phili

p S. Carmichael , president of the American Chamber of Commerce chapter here , s

aid Friday that planning for some large joint ventures had been put on hold this

 spring until the MFN issue was settled . This , he said , is an example of the 

way in which the issue put American business at a `` competitive disadvantage ''

 here . The chamber `` lauds the president 's leadership in looking out for the 

strategic interest of the United States , '' he said . Carmichael added that the

 chamber had hoped that the president would not impose any conditions for MFN re

newal this year , even the ban on Chinese guns . But he indicated he believes th

e impact of the gun ban will be minimal as Chinese weapons sales in the United S

tates amount to less than one percent of the more than $ 40 billion in annual tr

ade between the two countries . However , the Chinese semi-automatic rifles bein

g banned have become a favorite of U.S. criminals because of the weapons ' cheap

 price . `` Let 's declare victory , '' Carmichael said , `` and move on to the 

next issue . ''

 WASHINGTON When Jennifer Merrill faced possible surgery for a gynecological ail

ment , her new insurance plan refused to pay if she went to the specialist she h

ad been seeing for nine years . He was not a member of the plan . Instead , Merr

ill 's insurer wanted her to see a total stranger , an obstetrician-gynecologist

 who is a participating provider in her health maintenance organization . That m

akes the 23-year-old Baltimore woman one of a fast-growing number of Americans w

ho , even before enactment of national health care reform , are losing the freed

om to choose their own doctors . In Merrill 's case , the story does not end the

re . She became so uncomfortable with her new doctor that when the time came for

 the $ 2,000 surgery , she returned to her own specialist and with a loan from h

er grandparents paid the entire bill out of pocket . Merrill 's dilemma arose ou

t of one of today 's less-welcome trends in health care : Insurance companies ar

e aggressively imposing restricting `` managed care '' systems on their clients 

. In the name of curtailing soaring health care costs , individuals enrolled in 

these systems receive maximum coverage only when they visit participating doctor

s who agree to abide by price controls negotiated with the insurer . Clients may

 go outside the network of participating doctors but only if they pay much or , 

as in Merrill 's case , all of the price . Perhaps no issue has aroused so much 

emotion as that of whether Americans will be able to select their doctors . `` C

hoice is one of the things people most jealously guard against erosion and they 

are willing to pay for it , '' said Edward F. Howard , head of the nonpartisan A

lliance for Health Reform . Critics complain that President Clinton 's health re

form plan would not do enough to preserve choice a charge that first lady Hillar

y Rodham Clinton has branded as `` one of the great lies '' in the health care d

ebate . Clinton has said that the allegation , more than anything else , has `` 

made me the maddest in the relentless campaign against this plan . '' In fact , 

Clinton 's prescription for change , more than any other politically viable refo

rm proposal , would increase choice of doctors for most patients . `` Clinton 's

 plan has , if anything , bent over backward to give people the maximum choice ,

 '' said Stanley B . Jones , a Shepherdstown , W.Va. , analyst . But there 's a 

catch : People would have to pay something extra for that freedom , although har

dly the full cost that Merrill and her grandparents had to bear . Managed care s

ystems have grown so explosively that there are no reliable figures on how many 

exist . `` Nobody can say for sure , '' said Phil Caper , a New Hampshire physic

ian who sells computer software programs to managed care networks that monitor p

atients and doctors . `` All I know is that things have really taken off in the 

past few years . '' KPMG Peat Marwick , a benefits consulting firm , says the pe

rcentage of American workers enrolled by their employers in fee-for-service plan

s the traditional plans that reimburse workers for a percentage of their health 

costs , no matter who the doctor dropped from 71 percent in 1988 to just 49 perc

ent by last year . At the same time , the percentage of private employees in man

aged care systems grew from 5 percent in 1980 to 55 percent by 1992 , the govern

ment 's General Accounting Office reports . That percentage is even higher in la

rger firms , which have moved most aggressively in channeling workers into manag

ed care networks , says Derek Lifton , associate director of Peat Marwick in Was

hington . And according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute , the number 

of Americans enrolled in HMOs the most tightly run form of managed care rose fro

m 9.1 million in 1980 to 37.2 million by 1992 . The regional differences in HMO 

acceptance are stark : more than one in three Californians belong , compared wit

h 7 percent in Texas and less than 1 percent in Alaska , Montana and Wyoming . I

n all , as many as 95 percent of Americans with private insurance are subject to

 some form of utilization review , possibly leading to a denial of coverage eith

er before or after a specific treatment , according to Lewin-VHI Inc. , a health

 care consulting firm . `` Fewer than half of American workers have any choice a

t all over their doctors or their health care plan today , '' Clinton has said .

 Why hasn't there been a huge public outcry over the loss of choice if , as ever

yone says , it is such a potent consumer issue ? `` I don't think the public und

erstands how pervasive this is becoming , '' said Dr. James Todd , executive vic

e president of the American Medical Assocation . Clinton 's plan , like most oth

er viable proposals in Congress , contains strong financial incentives to prod c

onsumers into managed care systems . A central hallmark in such arrangements is 

the `` gatekeeper , '' a primary care physician whose permission is needed befor

e a patient may consult with a specialist . So it 's hardly surprising that the 

most vocal critics of the erosion of choice are high-priced specialists . Last m

onth , the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons , for example , took out full

-page newspaper ads to clamor for `` direct ( public ) access to specialty care 

. '' `` Those pushing the issue tend to be providers who don't want to be exclud

ed , '' said Bill Custer , EBRI 's research director . ( Optional add end ) Step

hen M. Shortell , a Northwestern University management professor , called the is

sue of choice in the context of health care reform `` a red herring . '' The pre

sident 's proposal , which seeks to guarantee a lifetime of comprehensive benefi

ts to all Americans , would increase choice by pooling most people into regional

 insurance-purchasing alliances that negotiate rates with specific groups of pro

viders and insurers . As an alliance member , Shortell says , `` you end up havi

ng to choose your doctor from a panel . But in most areas , that list will be pr

etty long . '' Under Clinton 's proposal , each alliance must offer at least thr

ee types of plans including a traditional but costlier fee-for-service plan and 

an HMO with lower premiums , no deductibles and co-payments of $ 10 or less per 

visit . Each plan also must offer a `` point-of-service '' option , which allows

 consumers to see any doctor outside the plan , but for a higher out-of-pocket f

ee . Under such arrangements , says Joseph M. Davis , president of Medimetrix , 

a Cleveland-based consulting firm , consumer choice `` goes up significantly . '

' Congress is sure to make major changes in Clinton 's plan . But , as currently

 written , it would require employers to pay at least 80 % of a worker 's premiu

ms , with the individual paying the rest . Administration analysts estimate that

 the average annual premiums ( subject to regional variations ) will be $ 4,200 

for a family of four and $ 1,800 for an individual . Twenty percent of that , th

e consumer share , would be $ 840 and $ 360 , respectively . For those who opt f

or more choice under a fee-for-service plan , premiums , co-payments and annual 

deductibles will be higher , with a cap on out-of-pocket spending of as much as 

$ 3,000 per year per family . `` That 's a high hurdle most people can't get ove

r , '' warned the AMA 's Todd . True choice , he said , `` will depend on what t

hat threshold is . '' The mandatory alliance structure proposed by Clinton also 

would let consumers rather than their employers pick which health plan to join .

 As the president boasted last month in a speech : `` We give choice of provider

s back to the employees themselves . ''

 In the fall of 1986 , Oliver North sought to save a convicted felon from servin

g his federal prison sentence . The beneficiary of North 's efforts was no commo

n criminal . His name was Jose Bueso Rosa ; he was a former Honduran general who

 had been actively involved in a failed 1984 plot to assassinate the president o

f Honduras a plot that was to be funded by a $ 10 million cocaine deal . It soun

ded like a lurid `` Miami Vice '' plot to veteran newspaper reporters , but for 

Oliver North , then the deputy director of political military affairs at the Nat

ional Security Council , it was just another day at the office . North insisted 

to colleagues that Bueso deserved special treatment because he had previously he

lped senior U.S. officials conduct covert operations in support of the Contra re

bels fighting in Central America . After Bueso was sentenced to a five-year pris

on term in connection with the assassination plot , North waged a wide-ranging b

ureaucratic campaign in Washington to gain his freedom . The story of North 's e

fforts on behalf of Bueso is not just an obscure chapter in the Iran-Contra scan

dal . Like shredding documents and misleading Congress in the name of defending 

American values , the leniency campaign for Bueso illuminates North 's seeming i

nability to distinguish between his own political interests and the requirements

 of the law . North , now a candidate for the Republican senatorial nomination i

n Virginia , presents himself as a candidate who is tough on crime , who favors 

the abolition of parole and who will zealously defend what he calls `` tradition

al American values . '' His efforts to free a man who plotted with a convicted c

ocaine conspirator to kill a democratically elected head of state suggest a cert

ain permissiveness in the way North puts his beliefs into action . In the Bueso 

case , as in other critical junctures in the Iran-Contra scandal , North did not

 let concern about the niceties of the law interfere with the pursuit of his goa

ls . North declined to answer questions about the Bueso affair for this article 

. He spelled out his motivation for the leniency campaign on Sept. 17 , 1986 in 

a White House electronic mail message to his boss , national-security adiser Joh

n Poindexter . North expressed his concern that Bueso , if sent to prison , migh

t `` break his long-standing silence about the Nic ( araguan ) Resistance and ot

her sensitive operations . '' North then called together a host of senior Reagan

 administration officials to `` cabal quietly , '' as he put it , on Bueso 's be

half . His behind-the-scenes pressure did not save Bueso from prison , but it di

d succeed in getting him transferred to one of the most comfortable federal corr

ectional facilities in the country . And Bueso , whom North feared might `` star

t singing songs nobody wants to hear , '' never did speak out publicly about cla

ndestine U.S. government operations in Central America . -O- Bueso 's assistance

 to the U.S. government in the early 1980s was a closely guarded secret . Only t

hree U.S. government officials `` were fully aware of all that ( Bueso ) was doi

ng on our behalf , '' according to a partially declassified memo written by Nort

h and obtained by the National Security Archive , a Washington research organiza

tion . What covert operations Bueso and North worked on together is not known . 

In one of his NSC memos , North said Bueso `` was the man with whom '' he and ot

her top officials `` worked out arrangements. .. . ' ' The next three lines of t

he memo have been classified as top secret . Bueso 's admitted violations of U.S

. law are not a secret . The FBI announced the indictment of Bueso and three oth

er men in November 1984 . The court proceedings that resulted in the conviction 

of all the defendants produced a detailed public record of the U.S. government '

s evidence about their scheme . The affair began in July 1984 . Bueso traveled t

o Miami where he joined four men in discussing a plot to kill the president of H

onduras and take control of the government . An FBI agent posing as an assassin-

for-hire infiltrated the plot and met Bueso at several meetings . The FBI also w

iretapped conversations of all of the participants . The plotter 's target was R

oberto Suazo , a wealthy conservative rancher who had been elected in 1981 . Sua

zo , though generally supportive of U.S. policies in Central America , was regar

ded as a virtual communist by several of the plotters because the Honduran gover

nment had allegedly reneged on business deals with them . Suazo was also no frie

nd of Bueso 's . Four months earlier , in March 1984 , Suazo , under pressure fr

om more nationalistic officers , had acquiesced in the purging of pro-American o

fficers , including Bueso , from commanding positions in the Honduran armed forc

es . North would later lobby for Bueso 's freedom by claiming that the Honduran 

man was only tangentially involved in the assassination plotting . The evidence 

available to the U.S. government indicated otherwise . Bueso participated in at 

least five meetings in the summer and fall of 1984 in which the assassination wa

s discussed and planned , according to the affidavit of the lead FBI agent in th

e case and the wiretaps . At one meeting , Bueso told the conspirators he did no

t want the assassination to be carried out prior to Nov. 15 , 1984 . According t

o an FBI affidavit , Bueso explained that a premature `` hit '' might cause the 

country to fall into the wrong hands . Bueso also knew about the hiring of the a

ssassin . In early September 1984 , he was present at a meeting where the conspi

rators swore a blood oath to carry out the assassination and the erstwhile hitma

n was paid $ 20,000 in cash . The plot , according to an FBI agent 's sworn test

imony and wiretaps submitted into the court record , was to be financed by a dru

g deal . In early October 1984 , Bueso 's host in Miami , a Honduran businessman

 named Faiz Sikaffy , was overheard by the undercover FBI agent discussing a dea

l involving `` fish . '' The FBI agents following the investigation believed tha

t `` fish '' was actually a code word for narcotics . The next day , Sikaffy agr

eed to pay the hit man $ 300,000 and 10 kilos of cocaine for carrying out the as

sassination , according to an FBI agent 's affidavit . On Oct. 28 , 1984 , the f

irst part of the plot was carried out . A Cessna plane , laden with 15 duffel ba

gs carrying 760 pounds of cocaine , landed at a remote airfield in central Flori

da . FBI agents were waiting . Over the next week all of the plotters were arres

ted ; Bueso , who was in Chile at the time , was arrested there . William Webste

r , director of the FBI , told the press , `` We don't want international terror

ists to establish beachheads or bases for operations in the United States such a

s they have enjoyed for years in other parts of the world . '' Facing extraditio

n from Chile , Bueso voluntarily returned to Miami in November 1985 . He was cha

rged and released on $ 50,000 bail . He was not charged with any narcotics-relat

ed offenses , and his lawyer has denied that he knew anything about any drug dea

l aspect of the plot . However , one of Bueso 's conversations heard on the FBI 

wiretaps had piqued the interest of federal investigators . The conversation occ

urred eight days before the cocaine arrived in the United States . Bueso called 

one of his fellow plotters in Miami asking for the whereabouts of Faiz Sikaffy .

 `` I have some things ready but it is on a timetable , '' Bueso was recorded as

 saying , . `` If he does not come on Tuesday that thing is ( expletive ) . '' `

` Uh .. . the fish ? .. . the fish flour ? '' his associate stammered . `` No ..

 . the fish flour , yes , '' Bueso said . `` The fish flour , I think that they 

have it , '' the other plotter replied . `` Uh , they are going to obtain a lett

er of credit . That 's what he was telling me . '' Then the conversation turned 

to the planning of the assassination in Honduras . `` Our assessment was that th

ere was insufficient evidence to join him ( Bueso ) in the narcotics indictment 

, '' says one federal prosecutor familiar with the case . `` From our perspectiv

e we often have that feeling that a defendant had to have known ( about drug tra

fficking ) but in Bueso 's case we couldn't prove it . He was certainly an activ

e player in the plans . '' There is no evidence that North knew about the plot w

hile it was taking place in 1984 . But it is known that Bueso was actively seeki

ng special treatment from Washington officials by the spring of 1986 . That was 

when Bueso entered into a plea-bargain agreement with federal prosecutors in Mia

mi . He pleaded guilty to two felony counts of traveling in furtherance of a con

spiracy . His lawyer asked for a delay in sentencing so that he could consult wi

th `` several highly placed officials '' in Washington who were working on aid t

o the Contras . At his sentencing hearing in July 1986 , Bueso expressed `` my p

rofound sorrow for having been involved in this case . At the same time , I woul

d like to clarify that the matter was not premeditated . '' Judge Sidney Aronovi

tz gave Bueso a lecture on terrorism and ordered him to report to a medium-secur

ity federal prison in Tallahassee , Fla. , on Sept. 25 , 1986 , to serve a five-

year sentence . -O- That 's when North 's behind-the-scenes campaign to spring B

ueso began . North was concerned that Bueso was going to feel betrayed if he act

ually had to serve a substantial amount of time . As he told Poindexter in an el

ectronic mail message on Sept 17 , 1986 , Bueso was due to report to prison in a

 week . `` He apparently still believed up until yesterday that he ( would ) be 

going to the minimum-security facility at Eglin ( Air Force base in Florida ) fo

r a short period ( days or weeks ) and then walk free . '' North swung into acti

on . He told Poindexter he was going to call a meeting of five top Reagan admini

stration officials `` to look at options : pardon , clemency , deportation , red

uced sentence . Objective is to keep Bueso from feeling like he was lied to in l

egal process . '' The next morning North reported to Poindexter that the meeting

 had gone well . The plan , he said , was to get retired Gen. Paul Gorman , the 

former top commander of U.S. forces in Latin America , to testify in closed cour