landing - Mixed messages on the economy

News about the speed or even the crash of the Chinese economy varies again very much depending on what paper you look at The International Herald Tribune reprints an article of the New York Times, giving a very gloomy picture of the top-end real estate in China. The Financial Times deals with the current shortage of migrant workers at the east-coast and tells us it is only temporary.
"The shortages, confined to coastal areas and believed to be temporary, challenge conventional wisdom about China's manufacturing prowess, based to a large degree on a limitless supply of low-cost workers," the FT writes. These labor costs could rise 20-30 percent in the coming year, says on analyst in the FT.
I would think the labor problem is a more serious one than the real estate, where only the rich might lose some money. In the case of the shortage of labor, higher wages are in the long run good for the Chinese economy (unlike higher oil prices, where the money leaves the country), but the inflation might be the bad side of that problem. It will reduce China's competitiveness, but that seems not a real problem in the short run.