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A Chinese customers shop at one of the Chinese outlets of the American supermarket Wal-Mart in Beijing, China Thursday Oct. 12, 2006. Nine months into the year, China's trade surplus has already broken the annual record set last year. China's growing trade gap has been a sore point in relations with its major trading partners, particularly the U.S., and has added pressure on the country to allow the value of its currency, the yuan, to rise. That would make its exports more expensive and imports into China more competitive. (AP Photo/Elizabeth Dalziel)