Informed Sources: Feb. 14, 1994

Les Aspin May Not Be Beijing Bound

Washington -- Former Secretary of Defense LES ASPIN probably won't accept President Clinton's offer to be U.S. Ambassador to China. Aspin wants to remain active in the Washington scene, and he's mulling over another job Clinton has proposed to him: head of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. What would please Aspin most, though, is a job in academia, preferably as a university president.

Governor King

Raleigh -- Legendary stock-car racer RICHARD PETTY, nicknamed "the King," seems to be preparing to enter North Carolina's 1996 gubernatorial election, as state G.O.P. officials have urged him to do. The longtime county commissioner has announced that he won't seek re-election, but that doesn't mean he's leaving politics. He recently helped launch both the Richard Petty Political Action Committee and the Richard Petty Policy Group. Paul Shumaker Jr., Petty's political consultant, will say only, "The formation of pac and the policy group does elevate his involvement in the political process."