From our colleague Bruce Crumley in Paris, a look at why China reacted so strongly to Nicolas Sarkozy's plan to meet with the Dalai Lama but did little after the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader's recent talks with British premier Gordon Brown and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

In the entry of the building where TIME's Hong Kong offices are located, there is a statue of a man squatting on a pedestal. Presumably the artist envisioned a work depicting a person deep in thought. To anyone who has used a squat toilet in China, the statue clearly depicts a man engaged in one of life's necessary activities. Whether he's deep in thought is incidental. (I've often wondered what sort of message the building owners intended by placing that statue where hundreds of workers must walk beneath it daily, but that's another story.)

I was reminded of the squatting man by a series of illustrations comparing China Central Television's new Beijing tower with a man engaged in the same necessary activity, albeit with the aid of Western toilet. As we wrote earlier, the revolutionary building has been nicknamed "Big Underpants." The state broadcaster is apparently unhappy with the inelegant nickname for its stunning new building, and is backing a search for an alternative. That's only made things worse, and prompted an online campaign in defense of "Big Underpants." Danwei.org reported yesterday that the Shanghai press has now taken up the story.

In the face of such attention, CCTV should embrace the earthy sobriquet. As the illustration below hints, the alternatives could be much worse:

As my colleague Liam Fitzpatrick has volubly complained in the past, the powers that be of world cuisine, or rather the self-appointed powers that be, don't seem to register that Chinese cooking is right up there with French and Japanese as one of the world's greats. He was particularly miffed that a purported ranking of the world's best restaurants didn't include a single Chinese restaurant in Asia. Now however no less an authority than the Michelin Guide, the grandaddy of them all, has made up for that oversight, at least partially. In its new Hong Kong Guide, published for the first time, it awards its coveted (that's a huge understatement) three stars to Lung Keen Heen, the Chinese restaurant in Hong Kong's Four Seasons Hotel. More accurately, as these things are always chef driven, the three stars go to the restaurant's chef, Chan Yan Tak. More power to him I say. And since the days of expense account blowouts are sadly over, if anyone is feeling generous, I'd be happy to be taken there the next time I am in Hong Kong. Meantime, please come to Beijing Mr. Michelin. Our restaurant scene is blossoming and we need some validation as too many people still think it's all about greasy Peking Duck and the odd dumpling.

China's Ministry of Health announced yesterday that six infants may have died in the country's tainted-milk scandal, up from the previously declared total of three, the state-run Xinhua news service reported. The number of children sickened also grew dramatically from 60,000 to 294,000. Their illnesses were caused by the illegal addition of melamine, an industrial chemical used in making plastics that can show the protein content of inferior milk to appear artificially high. When consumed it can cause kidney problems.

The new official death toll comes after weeks of no updates. And it raises further questions. Last month the Associated Press reported on eight cases of infants who died of kidney failure after drinking powdered milk from Sanlu, the dairy producer at the heart of the crisis. The AP reported cited "families, medical records or state media accounts" as its sources. The government, of course, has access to more information than a news service. But not only did it take weeks longer to get its information out, it also hasn't explained why its number is lower than what has been previously reported.

But no sense getting too worried over this. As Xinhua tells us: "Most of the sick children were found to have only sand-like stones in their urinary systems." Only?

From Bill Powell, here's a look at the recent layoffs in south China and why they have the government so concerned.