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Another day, another calamitous economic data point out of China. It is now safe to conclude that the China bull-versus-bear debate has been won by the skeptics and, for Canadian investors, there are few excuses left for not making significant changes in their portfolios.

Chinese trade numbers released overnight were described as "unremittingly bad" . Exports, expected to grow at a 3.7 per cent year over year pace, showed a decline of 3.1 per cent. Economists expected import growth of 6.0 per cent and got a reduction of 0.7 per cent.

There is some noise in the report – some of the decline likely results from a government crackdown on the widespread practice of fake invoicing that boosted import statistics. But, the month over month numbers, which largely remove this effect, were also wretched.

There was a silver lining in China-related news overnight, but it was in consumer sectors that won't help Canadian resource companies much. Auto sales rose 9.3 per cent in June, in line with estimates, and Burberry reported an 18 per cent rise in revenue from its stores in China.

Hong Kong shares were higher after the trade data was released on hopes that the government will attempt to reignite growth with stimulus. But in recent months the central government – by engineering a bank liquidity scare and warning about local government debt levels – appears far more interested in limiting investment growth while it sorts through credit issues, notably wealth management products.

China is not about to slide into the ocean or regress back into a feudal economy. It is the world's second largest economy (for now, at least – Japan might give it a run for its money in the next few years) and still has substantial potential for growth in the coming decades.

But the current Chinese economic model is clearly exhausted. Chinese officials have repeatedly warned that the country would have to reduce its reliance on infrastructure investment in favour of consumer-led economic growth. This process appears to be underway, but it will not proceed without markedly slower growth and the need to clean up what has become a monstrous debt overhang .

The China economic miracle that has benefitted Canadian resource investors for the past decade is now, if not over, prohibitively questionable. How many more signs do we need? Time to reduce resource exposure.

Scott Barlow is a contributor to ROB Insight, the business commentary service available to Globe Unlimited subscribers. Click here to read more of his Insights , and follow Scott on Twitter at @SBarlow_ROB .

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