For well over a year now, we have been hearing predictions that double-digit annual labour cost increases are at last about to throw grit into China’s apparently unstoppable export machine. So far, they remain confounded. China’s exports not only grew 27 per cent last year; according to US official data, their prices in the US have actually fallen – even though the renminbi has risen by more than 6 per cent against the dollar since mid-2005.

That performance is not just the result of excess-capacity industries, such as steel, dumping output abroad at cutthroat prices. Real money is being made. A recent Deutsche Bank analysis finds many exporters’ margins even increased last year. In textiles and clothing, a classic low-margin business, producers are celebrating record profits.