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Exports fell 0.5 percent year-on-year in January to $149.94 billion while imports plunged 15.3 percent to $122.66 billion, the customs agency said in a statement. China's politically sensitive trade surplus -- a constant bugbear for its major trade partners -- widened to $27.28 billion in January from $16.52 billion in the previous month, the statement said. Analysts have cautioned that January data have been significantly distorted by the earlier-than-usual Chinese Lunar New Year holiday, which fell in January this year.