March 2, 2004

Experts See Risks as China Asserts Economic Power As China increasingly welcomes multinational companies and foreign investment, many Western business executives have become positively enraptured by the company's cheap work force and its huge markets. But that same openness -- combined with China's vast population and military muscle -- makes it an even bigger long-term economic challenge to the United States than Japan seemed to be in the 1980's, according to a growing number of executives, economists and officials. [Page A1.]

Bob Dole, former senator and presidential candidate, Viagra pitchman and white-shoe lobbyist, finds yet another vocation at age 80, as election-night pundit on CNN; photo; he is appearing on Larry King Live throughout Democratic primary season and will offer commentary at conventions this summer and on election night in November; Dole observes that his inside glimpses into candidates' thinking come from fact that he has been there and has 'lost everything'; he is also on speaking tour for Pfizer promoting new Medicare drug coverage, but says he relishes analyst role that allows him to strategize without heartbreak; perhaps most striking is sympathy that Republicans' onetime 'hatchet man' expresses for losing Democrats (M)

Federal prosecutor Michael Schachter gives closing argument in Martha Stewart trial; contends she conspired with former stockbroker Peter E Bacanovic to lie about circumstances that led to her sale of nearly 4,000 shares of ImClone Systems, but 'probably never thought she would get caught'; says plan backfired because 'they left behind a trail of evidence that exposed the truth about Martha Stewart's sale'; photo (M)

When Myrna Blyth, the former editor of Ladies' Home Journal and the author of a new book excoriating women's magazines, walks through Michael's restaurant in Midtown Manhattan, all eyes in that gathering spot for the media elite seem to follow her. She appears not to notice, but when she takes a seat, she sits with her back against a wall. Not to worry. In the air-kissing environs of Michael's and the magazine world, no one would be so bold as to confront Ms. Blyth about her new book, ''Spin Sisters: How the Women of the Media Sell Unhappiness and Liberalism to the Women of America'' (St. Martin's Press, $24.95). But after her decision to throw a grenade over her shoulder upon leaving an industry she was very much a part of for more than three decades, many in her former cohort see her as traitorous and self-interested.

Proposal to nearly double space of Javits Convention Center (NYC), which report commissioned by center says will attract half million more visitors, has generally been well received, but tandem plans to add $1.4 billion stadium for New York Jets at center's south side is monopolizing local rhetoric; diagram (M)