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If you mine the newspaper archives for last year, or the year before (well, not exactly, you need for Chinese New Year, which being based on a lunar calendar is a movable feast) you will see many a story about how factories were desperately short of the labour they needed in the big Chinese manufacturing towns.
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Young people celebrate Christmas more than Chinese New Year not because they are Christians, but because Christmas is a Western tradition, considered modern and trendy in China.
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The lesson for China of Japan's policy change - the result of an unprecedented budget deficit - is that foreign investors may not give the benefit of the doubt to Chinese New Deal infrastructure plans next year if private consumption and investment fail to pick up.
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Meanwhile, in China, the hoped for aggressive economic rescue has not been forthcoming, with analysts expecting any major stimulus to be put off until after the new Chinese leadership takes over later in the year and gets a chance to act, probably not until early next year.
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