China, competativeness on the decline

Financial Times reports that Chinese competativeness is on the decline.

“China’s costs are all going up,” Mr Fung said. “It is no longer the most cost-effective country in the region...Anything [sourced] from China has a higher inflation component than from other places around the world.”

Cited as reasons for this inflation are the increase in the value of the renmibi, increased labor costs, etc. This reminds me of the recent response to labor strikes in Vietnam whis was that Vietnam can afford to insist on higher wages because the average Chinese worker still gets paid more. (article at home, I'll have to track it down.) Some other articles I'd cite in this thread...

A piece on the structural position of vietnam in world economy
recent piece by Bensaid - focuses mostly on the protest movements generally (as does this)
Editorial by Vietnamese wage minister on how the strikes should be ignored and suppressed
Piece on strikes in both vietnam and china
A piece on Europe's concern (and media avoidance) of Vietnamese strikes
A piece on worker strikes in Dubai that, despite the recent news about that country, will surely get ignored as well. In short, Asian workers striking over conditions and wages there.