September 3, 1989

LEAD: A factory in Woodside, Queens, once used by the Bulova Watch Corporation, is being remodeled for commercial and residential uses. The three-story structure at 61-20 Woodside Avenue near the Long Island Rail Road station, is being converted into 72 apartments plus 7,800 square feet of retail space and 8,200 square feet of medical office space on the ground floor.

LEAD: America's regional theaters, which established themselves as alternatives to New York's commercial theater a generation ago - and thus transformed the nation's cultural landscape - may once again be at a crossroads. More than 25 years after the not-for-profit regional movement began, the way these theaters - 320 of them across the country - bring drama to their audiences is being altered by their own evolution.

LEAD: In a significant shift in its strategy to modernize the country, China said today that it would restrict the number of graduate students it sends to the United States and other nations, and would begin producing far more members of its technological elite in Chinese universities.

LEAD: On Tuesday, when President Bush uses his first major television address to announce his plan to fight drugs, his timing will seem perfect: opinion polls show that Americans are fed up with the epidemic. But he is also taking a necessary political risk. A look at the plan and at what some state officials would like to see.

LEAD: WHAT do the states want from a national war on drugs? Last week, Laura Mansnerus, an editor of The Week in Review, posed the question in telephone interviews with several officials from around the nation. Here are excerpts from their responses. New York