Chinese rule is handing down a "death sentence" to Tibetans, the Dalai Lama said Sunday, ahead of a meeting to decide Tibet's future approach to Beijing.
The region's exiled leader is on a week-long visit to Japan for talks on spirituality, just as a new round of talks between his envoys and Chinese officials was set to begin, and days after he said he had lost hope of any productive dialogue with Beijing.

"Tibetans are being handed down a death sentence. This ancient nation, with an ancient cultural heritage is dying," he told a group of reporters. "Today, the situation is almost like a military occupation in the entire Tibetan area.  "It is like we're under martial law. Fear, terror and lots of political education are causing a lot of grievance," he added.

The 73-year old Nobel Peace laureate said he was "semi-retiring" because of stalled talks with Beijing, and said he would convene a meeting on November 17 to discuss Tibet's future approach to dealing with China. "We will listen to the people's suggestions, and then I think things will become clear," he said.

"I don't think I will completely retire, but for the time being while dealing with the Chinese central government, I can no longer take full direct responsibility. My position is completely neutral," he said. "Because we believe in democratic principles, the people should express their real feelings. I should not be hindering their opinions."

The Dalai Lama, who has lived in India since fleeing Tibet in 1959, is a frequent visitor to Japan, where he enjoys an active following. During his stay, he is scheduled to give speeches arranged by a Japanese Buddhist group and Tibetan supporters. He will also visit children and monks.

Report: China's animal feed tainted with melamine

Animal feed producers in China commonly add the industrial chemical melamine to their products to make them appear higher in protein, state media reported Thursday, an indication that the scope of the country's latest food safety scandal could extend beyond milk and eggs.

The practice of mixing melamine into animal feed is an "open secret" in the industry, the Nanfang Daily newspaper reported in an article that was republished on the Web sites of the official Xinhua News Agency and the Communist Party mouthpiece People's Daily.

Publicizing such a problem is rare in the Chinese media and appears to be a tacit admission by China's central government that melamine contamination is widespread.

The news comes after four brands of Chinese eggs were found to be contaminated with melamine, which agriculture officials have speculated came from adulterated feed given to hens. The discovery of the tainted eggs followed on the heels of a similar crisis involving compromised dairy products that sent tens of thousands of children to the hospital and was linked to the deaths of four infants.

That scandal was triggered by dairy suppliers who added melamine, a chemical used to make plastics and fertilizer, to watered-down milk in order to dupe quality control tests and make the product appear rich in protein.

It is forbidden to deliberately add melamine to food and animal feed, but its apparent prevalence highlights the inability of authorities to keep the food production process clean of toxins despite official vows to raise safety standards.

The Ministry of Agriculture and the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine did not immediately respond to faxed requests for comment. Phones rang unanswered at the Ministry of Health.

Chemical plants used to pay companies to treat and dispose of excess melamine, but about five years ago began selling it to manufacturers who repackaged it as "protein powder," the Nanfang Daily report said, citing an unnamed chemical industry expert. Melamine is high in nitrogen, and most protein tests test for nitrogen levels.

The inexpensive powder was first used to give the impression of higher protein levels in aquatic feed, then later in feed for livestock and poultry, the report said.

"The effect far more exceeds the milk powder scandal," the newspaper said.

In the past week, melamine has been discovered in at least four brands of Chinese eggs, and officials in China's largest city, Shanghai, said they had begun checks on all eggs sold in local markets.

"We are closely following the development of the egg scandals in the nation and will carry out effective measures accordingly," said Gu Zhenhua, an official from the city Food and Drug Administration was quoted as saying in Thursday's editions of the Shanghai Daily.

No one has been sickened and it was not immediately clear how many eggs have been recalled.

China's leading egg processor, Dalian Hanwei Enterprise Group, was among the companies found to have tainted eggs, which were first identified by Hong Kong food safety regulators.

The government in the northeastern city of Dalian has said it was first alerted to the problem of melamine-tainted eggs on Sept. 27 — but it did not explain the delay in reporting the problem.

The company's Web site said that, besides the domestic and Hong Kong markets, its egg products are exported to Japan and countries in Southeast Asia.

China's fresh eggs are mainly exported to the Chinese territories of Hong Kong and Macau, while egg products are also sold to Japan and the U.S., according to a February egg market report on the Agriculture Ministry's Web site, the latest available data.

The reputation of Chinese products has in the past year come under fire after high levels of chemicals and additives were found in goods ranging from toothpaste to milk powder. In the milk scandal, Chinese authorities and a leading dairy producer delayed reporting the problem for months.

The Ministry of Health said Wednesday that 2,390 children remained hospitalized after drinking tainted milk, including one in serious condition, and 48,514 had been treated at hospitals and released.

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The revelation comes amid a crisis over dairy products tainted with melamine that has caused kidney stones in tens of thousands of Chinese children and has been linked to the deaths of four infants.

The raccoon dogs _ a breed native to east Asia whose fur is used to trim coats and other clothing _ died of kidney failure after eating the tainted feed, said Zhang Wenkui, a veterinary professor at Shenyang Agriculture University.

"First, we found melamine in the dogs' feed, and second, I found that 25 percent of the stones in the dogs' kidneys were made up of melamine," said Zhang, who performed a necropsy _ an animal autopsy _ on about a dozen dogs.

Zhang declined to say when the animals died, but a report Monday in the Southern Metropolis Daily said the deaths occurred over the past two months.

The animal deaths were a reminder of last year's uproar over a Chinese-made pet food ingredient containing melamine that was linked to the deaths of dozens of dogs and cats in the United States and touched off a massive pet food recall.

It was not immediately clear how the chemical entered the raccoon dog feed. But in the tainted milk scandal and last year's pet food recall, melamine was believed to have been added to artificially boost nitrogen levels, making products seem higher in protein when tested.

At the time, China's product safety authorities revoked the business licenses of questionable firms, announced tougher guidelines and increased inspections. But the countless small, illegally operating manufacturers found throughout the country make monitoring difficult.

Tainted Chinese Milk Has Now Hospitalized Over 10,000 Children

The Health Ministry said in a statement on its Web site Wednesday that 10,666 children were still in hospitals after drinking milk contaminated with melamine, an industrial chemical that can cause kidney stones and lead to life-threatening kidney failure.

No new deaths have been recorded, it said. The scandal has so far been blamed for the deaths of four babies and the sickening of about 54,000 other children in China.

But the effects of the scandal continue to be felt, forcing the government to deal with festering health and public relations issues. China's food exports have increasingly suffered, with more than 30 countries restricting Chinese dairy imports and in some cases all Chinese food products.

At a meeting of the World Trade Organization in Geneva, Chinese officials sought to limit the damage Thursday, saying Beijing was making enormous efforts to deal with the problem and maintaining no new cases of contamination had been detected since Sept. 20.

The officials also contended the contamination had been accidental, contradicting a World Health Organization assessment that the chemical was added deliberately.

Dairy suppliers have been accused of adding melamine _ used in making plastics, paint and adhesives _ to watered-down milk to make it appear rich in protein. Melamine, like protein, is high in nitrogen, which is what quality tests measure.

Until this week, there had been no standards in China for the amount of the chemical allowed in food products.

A Dozen Countries Banning, Recalling Nation's Dairy Products

Another hospital had declared the 3-year-old boy healthy despite a steady diet of two brands of milk powder and two kinds of milk linked to a toxin that can cause kidney stones. But then his face began to swell.

The second hospital diagnosed kidney disease but not kidney stones, telling a disbelieving Gu to pay upfront for treatment that could last six months to two years. Gu and his wife, Xu Chongju, said they feel doubly cheated and are certain their son's illness is connected to China's latest food safety scare, which has outraged Chinese consumers, embarrassed the government and spurred food recalls in Europe and Asia.

"Those milk powder manufacturers put a lot of money into TV commercials and brag how magical their products are. Of course we parents will think those powders are good for the baby's health," said Xu, who breast-fed her son for a year before turning to formula. "We feel deep regret about this, but what's the use of regret? There is no regret medicine in the world."

Reporter Jian Guangzhou became frustrated with state-controlled media reports mentioning that formula had sickened some babies but not identifying the company involved. In a Sept. 11 post on Tianya.cn, a Chinese social portal, Jian named Sanlu Dairy Co. as the maker of the tainted formula and lifted the veil on a host of familiar problems: greedy businessmen, unscrupulous advertisers, local officials worried about negative publicity and police determined to halt protests.

Individual farmers, accused of adding the toxin to their milk to make it appear high in protein, are now throwing away milk that no one wants to buy. Dairy factories, accused of not properly testing the milk they bought, have lost credibility and trust.

The 11 recalled items were sold in parts of Asia and the Pacific, the company said in a statement. Cadbury's chocolates sold in the United States were not affected, said a spokesman for Hershey's, Cadbury's sole U.S. distributor.

Meanwhile, Kraft Foods, the maker of Oreo cookies, and Mars, the maker of M&Ms and Snickers candy, questioned the findings of Indonesian tests that identified melamine in samples of their products made in China.

Both Kraft Foods and Mars said they would comply with an Indonesian recall but planned to conduct their own tests and look into the possibility the tainted products were counterfeits.

Melamine-laced baby formula and other dairy products in China have been blamed for sickening nearly 54,000 children and leading to four infant deaths. The industrial chemical, which is high in nitrogen, is believed to have been added to watered-down milk to mask the resulting protein deficiency and fool quality tests.

Preliminary tests showed melamine in Cadbury chocolates produced at the candy maker's Beijing factory, but it was too early to say how much of the chemical was in them, said a Cadbury spokesman who declined to be identified because of company policy.

Another official reached through the company's London office said there was no way the contaminated chocolate could find its way into other countries because the Chinese factory only supplies Australia, Taiwan, Nauru, Hong Kong and Christmas Island.

"That factory in Beijing only exports to those markets. It's only a small factory," said the official. He said Chinese production makes up only 0.5 percent of Cadbury's global sales, and the recalled items are "less than that because it's only chocolate."

My wife is Canadian-born, Taiwan-raised. She speaks both English and Mandarin flawlessly. She doesn't often reveal she's from Taiwan to cabbies unless they ask though, and they usually can't tell by her accent. Her brother in Taiwan accuses her of sounding like a mainlander now anyway, so it seems she's adapted to the dialect.

On the occasions they do ask her and she tells them she's from Taiwan, there are two or three predictable responses. One response is something along the lines of 'Why doesn't Taiwan want to be part of China? We are all brothers.' Another along those lines is 'I don't blame Taiwan for not wanting to be part of China.' Lastly, they might mention a relative they have in Taiwan, most of the time whom they've never met; or they might talk about their favorite Taiwan pop and movie stars.

Among the most unusual comments she's heard since we've been here have been things like:

'I'd vote for the Kuomintang.'

And from a separate cabbie, a similar though elaborated answer: 'If I could vote for Ma Ying-jeou over Hu Jintao, I'd vote for Ma.' (Ma is the current president of Taiwan; Hu Jintao the president of the People's Republic of China)

And this, about a month before the Olympics when asked if he was excited the Games were coming: 'No one asked me if I wanted them. I hate the Olympics. It's caused a lot of problems.'

Usually things don't get too political though, partly because my wife doesn't like to talk about politics. In particular, China-Taiwan political discussion can get too messy.

Lately though, neither of us have heard much along these lines or anything other than small talk. It could have to do with the eavesdropping systems they've installed in Beijing taxis. Future taxicab confessions in the capital might be few and far between with Big Brother sitting next to you in the front seat. Where language barriers don't succeed, technology might. Popping in the earphone buds is a much safer, though socially deafening, option.

With this in mind, I was surprised by my cabbie yesterday. Around seven in the evening, I was in a taxi on the East-Central side of Beijing, trying to get to a restaurant buried in a maze of hutongs.

"Hello," said the cabbie. He was a small, youngish man with a small round head and a goofy grin. "How are you?"

"Hey, your English is very good," I said. I was genuinely surprised. He didn't seem to have much of an accent.

"No English. Where are you from?"

"Meiguo," I responded. "I'm American."

"Ah, America. America number one." He shot his finger into the air and dodged a bicyclist. I could hear his accent now.

I laughed and nodded. I never really know how to respond to this. "Jia you ... zhongguo." I said. 'Go go ... China.' He grinned.

"No English." As he said this I started to wonder if he really knew English. Perhaps he was saying 'Know English.' Then he started to hum the Star Spangled Banner. My wife and her two friends chatted loudly in the back seat of the taxi, oblivious. I laughed a little and tried to recall the PRC national anthem which was heard so much just a month ago during the Olympics but I couldn't recall a single note. He fiddled with the radio a little. I could hear the voice of Hu Jintao, speaking clearly and convincingly about something.

"Democracy forever," the cabbie said. He smiled at me with a toothy grin and pumped his fist in the air.

"Maybe in the future," I muttered. I had been caught off guard and didn't know what to say in Chinese. He didn't seem to know what I was saying. I dumbly pointed ahead and repeated "Maybe in the future. Someday." "No English," he said, looking confused. He shook his head. "No English."

The medals, which were supposed to be made entirely of gold, were instead found to be composed of 99% lead alloy and coated with a gold-colored lead-based paint.

The shocking revelations roiled the Olympic complex today and sent officials looking for answers from the Chinese manufacturer of the medals, the Wuhan One Hundred Percent Gold Medal Corporation.

"We are trying to determine how exactly so much lead got into those gold medals," said a spokesman for Wuhan, China's largest exporter of gold medals. "Until we do, we are urging all first-place athletes not to lick, taste or suck on their medals."

The list includes words related to the religious group Falun Gong, Taiwan independence and the Chinese Communist Party, according to the researchers. It includes not only words like democracy, but also earthquake and milk powder. (Chinese officials are facing criticism over the handling of earthquake relief and chemicals tainting milk powder.)

The list also serves as a filter to restrict text conversations. The encrypted list of words inside the Tom-Skype software blocks the transmission of those words and a copy of the message is sent to a server. The Chinese servers retained personal information about the customers who sent the messages. They also recorded chat conversations between Tom-Skype users and Skype users outside China. The system recorded text messages and Skype caller identification, but did not record the content of Skype voice calls.

In just two months, the servers archived more than 166,000 censored messages from 44,000 users, according to a report that was published on the Information Warfare Monitor Web site at the university.

There's a full pdf of the report on the Tom-Skype monitoring here. Also informative (though not as complete as one would hope) is this report from Reporters Without Borders from last year about how some of the Internet censoring and monitoring works.

A couple months ago I got a Virtual Private Network (VPN) account from a foreign provider which allows me to get around any of the Great Firewall problems. After about a year of sluggish connections and no access to certain sites, getting this VPN was like emerging from a fog. (HuffingtonPost has been blocked here, by the way, since a month or so before the Olympics). Not only is everything faster, I can get to any site I want. There is also a free service now called HotspotShield from AnchorFree. Your average Chinese Internet user probably doesn't know much about these services, but the more savvy ones certainly do.