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China’s foreign direct investment (FDI) reached its highest total in 16 months during November, sustaining the rising trend since August, a clear signal that the nation’s speedy economic recovery is attracting more foreign investors.

The FDI climbed as high as 32 percent from a year earlier to $7.02 billion last month, compared with a 5.7 percent bump in October, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

China’s FDI rose by 7 percent in August, the first monthly growth since last October when the financial crisis landed. Foreign investment grew by 19 percent in September.

The growth for four consecutive months has saved the total FDI from dropping by double digits during the past 11 months. China’s FDI fell by 9.9 percent to $77.9 billion from January to November, said the Ministry of Commerce.

“China’s ongoing economic recovery and the low reference point last year are the reasons behind (November’s growth),” said Li Wei, an economist from Standard Chartered China.

While developed economies, including the United States and Europe, are still weak, China’s GDP for the third quarter grew by 8.9 percent year-on-year, one percentage point higher than the second quarter.

The World Bank predicted recently that China’s GDP will grow by 8.4 percent for the year and 8.7 percent in the upcoming year, much higher than that of developed nations.

“China’s amazingly high economic growth has and will keep it the most attractive destination for international investors,” said Li Xiaogang, a professor with foreign investment research center under the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.

The FDI will grow steadily in the next few months with the monthly figure possibly remaining in the range of $7 billion to $8 billion, predicted the Ministry of Commerce.

During the three-day central economic work conference that ended on Dec 7, President Hu Jintao said that China will take efforts to expand domestic spending in the coming year as one way to support stable economic growth.

“More global companies will flock into sectors related to domestic consumption, such as the service industry, pharmaceuticals, environmental protection and retailing, to tap business opportunities,” said Li.

And there is growing interest in spending-driven sectors from overseas.

In the pharmaceutical sector, Novartis International AG, the world’s sixth largest pharmaceutical, said in November it will inject $1 billion to strengthen research capabilities in China in five years, to cash in on the nation’s rapidly growing medical business industry under the healthcare reform. It also signed an agreement with Tianyuan Bio-pharm to invest in and acquire business from the leading vaccine producer in China.

According to the Ministry of Commerce, investment from developed regions, including the US and Europe, declined in November, but those from neighboring nations represented by ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) grew by margins.

This year, China has taken measures to promote FDI. Song Zhe, head of the Chinese mission to the European Union, said on Tuesday that the nation will step up efforts to boost foreign investment, including opening more opportunities in the service, hi-tech and energy-saving industries; and encouraging foreign companies to be listed domestically.

Pupils display their Chinese calligraphy works on Chinese traditional bamboo slips at the Sunny Future Primary School in Xiangfan, central China’s Hubei Province, Dec. 14, 2009.

Chinese President Hu Jintao ended his visit to Kazakhstan Sunday and left Astana for Ashgabat, capital of Turkmenistan, to continue his two-nation tour of Central Asia.

Hu arrived in Astana Saturday for a working visit, his fourth one to Kazakhstan as head of state since 2003. He paid three state visits to Kazakhstan in 2003, 2005 and 2007.

In Astana, President Hu met his Kazakh counterpart Nursultan Nazarbayev on the further development of the friendly and cooperative ties between their two nations.

Chinese diplomats said that the two leaders exchanged views on bilateral ties and major world and regional issues of common concern, and agreed to promote the China-Kazakhstan strategic partnership.

During the visit, the Chinese leader also attended an inauguration ceremony of the China-Kazakhstan natural gas pipeline, part of the China-Central Asia natural gas pipeline.

The China-Central Asia Pipeline starts at the border between Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan and runs through Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan before reaching the Chinese northwest region of Xinjiang.

President Hu and state leaders of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan are scheduled to attend a ceremony marking the completion of one of the two pipelines which make up the project Monday.

In recent years, China and Kazakhstan have maintained frequent high-level contacts, deepened political mutual trust and expanded practical cooperation and collaboration. Pragmatic cooperation between the two countries has been fruitful.

In 2008, two-way trade between the two countries stood at 17.5 billion U.S. dollars, up 26 percent from the previous year.

The general trend of global security in 2009 is that non-state actors bring about considerable instability and challenges to the international system, a Swedish security expert has said.

“Non-state actors, for example, a small group of pirates off the coast of Somalia, Al Qaida and Taliban who operate across borders and have more and more sophisticated means of violence, are becoming bigger and bigger challenges to the international system,” said Bates Gill, director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

NON-STATE ACTORS CONSUME MUCH TIME, ENERGY, MONEY OF WORLD

Although small in size, these non-state actors consume enormous amount of time, energy and money of relevant countries to address the threat and instability they pose, which has happened again and again across many parts of the world such as in Afghanistan, the Palestinian territories, South of Lebanon and parts of South America, he said.

One of the reasons was an increasing access to weapons and technologies ranging from simple conventional weapons to non-conventional ones such as radiological, chemical and possibly even nuclear weapons in the future, Gill explained.

“In the meantime, the international system is becoming more complicated and dependent on openness such as open trade, communication, means of labor mobility and technology transfers, which is the life blood of a modern civilized international society,” said Gill.

Thus it seems the world has a combination of the so-called bad players who have the means to disrupt the international system through violence as the international community becomes more open, thus more vulnerable, he added.

U.S. SUPERPOWER NOT THAT EFFECTIVE

With the ability to project military force over long distances, the United States, the world’s only superpower, will have no rival probably in decades, said Gill, but the U.S. power is not always effective in the current international arena.

“But in today’s international system, the military technical power is only useful in fighting certain types of enemies in certain types of wars while if it is true, the wars tomorrow or the instability of tomorrow are going to be generated mostly by non-state actors, who work relatively in small groups and cause mass casualties among innocent civilians. Then that really changes the ability of a military power like the United States,” explained Gill.

He emphasized that the United States suffered from the lack of soft power and ability to lead without coercion in the last several years and has a lot of work to do in trying to rebuild its image.

CHINA PLAYS INCREASINGLY POSITIVE, CONSTRUCTIVE ROLE

China has played an increasingly positive and constructive role in terms of global security, involving more in regional and multilateral mechanisms and improving confidence and building security in southeast, central and northeast Asia, commended Gill.

“China has taken important steps since the last decade to become a far more positive player on arms control and non-proliferation,” he said.

China had already increased its willingness to make direct contributions to regional stability, he added.

“The world community welcomes an even greater role of China in dealing with security challenges not only near China, but also in the other parts of the world.”

2010 TO BE DIFFICULT WITH WORRISOME NUCLEAR PROGRAMS

Gill said that the biggest worry in the Middle East was related to the Iranian nuclear program and Iran’s apparent refusal to comply fully with the international community to be more honest and frank about its disputed nuclear plan.

“A future nuclear-armed Iran is going to be unacceptable to Israel, America and its allies in Europe. It is also intolerable for other states around the Gulf, most importantly Saudi Arabia,” he said.

Gill also said the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula would not move to a very positive direction either, as diplomatic solutions could be difficult in 2010.

Gill preferred multilateral talks to solve the issue, saying it was the multilateral process that makes more sense, and was most likely to result in a solution which is agreeable to all concerned parties.

The best market instrument China can use to cut its greenhouse gas emissions in the near future is a carbon tax, according to two reports issued by the Chinese Economists 50 forum.

The reports said the impact of global warming has exceeded previous predictions. If China’s emissions peak in 2025, the country will have to reduce them 35 percent in every year after that to help keep global warming below 2 degrees Celsius by 2050.

Last year’s average temperature in China was 9.6 degrees Celsius, the seventh-warmest year since 1951.

The reports said a carbon tax should be at the heart of any strategy to cut emissions and increase energy efficiency.

A carbon tax could be imposed on both the production and consumption process, with fixed tax rates, and would have substantial short- and long-term effects, the reports said.

“In (the) short run, it discourages the utilization of end-use energy in both production and final demand. In the long run, it gives firms incentives to invest on technology innovation and diffusion of no-carbon or low carbon technologies, and further reduce carbon dioxide by choosing a cleaner developing path,” the report stated.

The reports said the advantages of a carbon tax include that it would be easier for the government to implement than creating a brand-new carbon emissions market; it would be a major source of government revenue; it would be more transparent and understandable, and hence likely to enjoy broader public support; and it could be implemented with fewer opportunities for interference by various special interest groups.

Zhang Jianjun, director of the Department of Sustainable Development and Climate Change at PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting China, echoed the sentiment.

“A carbon tax is the fairest way to get all enterprises involved in this emission reduction mission,” Zhang said, adding that the tax might impact the already low profit margins of high emitters like steel mills.

Fan Gang, an adviser to China’s central bank, said a carbon tax would facilitate an adjustment of China’s economic structure, though it could be costly to enterprises in the short term.

“The country can lower other (requirements) on enterprises,” said Fan, citing European nations that limit the social security payments businesses must make.

The reports also said that while levying a carbon tax, China could also use a cap-and-trade system, which could become the more dominant carbon pricing instrument in the future.

China vowed to cut energy consumption per unit of GDP production by 20 percent dur-ing its current 11th Five-Year Plan period (2006-2010) and declared in November that it plans to cut carbon intensity by 40-45 percent by 2020 from 2005 levels.

Four persons were killed in a landmine blast triggered by suspected extreme left-wing rebels in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh on Sunday, said police.

Voters in Taiwan will elect local officials on Saturday in the first test of the island’s mainland-friendly leader Ma Ying-jeou a year-and-a-half after he came to power.

The election result could have an impact on the cross-Straits policy of Ma’s ruling Kuomintang (KMT) and on upcoming cross-Straits talks that will be held in Taichung, experts said on Friday.

If the KMT holds its current majority or gains seats, Ma’s already strong position will be cemented, adding momentum to his efforts to broker stronger ties with the mainland through trade pacts.

“Certainly, if they do well, that would please Beijing,” Lin Chong-pin, strategic studies professor at Tamkang University in Taipei, was quoted as saying by Reuters on Friday.

The local elections are being held to select county magistrates, city mayors, county and city councilors and township chiefs.

If the pro-independence opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) adds to the three seats it holds out of the 17 at stake in the elections, the result might indicate that voters are upset about such issues as the perceived slow response to the deadly typhoon in August and to the lifting of a ban on US beef imports.

“I know our competitor, the DPP, has always hoped to raise this vote to the level of a central election and teach us a lesson,” Ma told a news conference on Friday.

The DPP supports the island’s formal independence from the mainland and upset Beijing when it held the “presidency” from 2000 to 2008.

Campaigning dominated by roadside posters, blaring trucks and non-stop TV ads reached a crescendo on Friday.

Mindful of the mainland, the island government this week announced new rules that forbid mainland tourists from attending political rallies or appearing on TV talk shows, local media said.

About 38 percent of Taiwan’s electorate can vote, with elections in major cities and counties set for next year. Winning mayoral and magistrate candidates will take office on Dec 20. The terms will last four years.

“If the KMT lost one or two seats to the DPP in this election, I am afraid it will opt to take a more conservative stand in its cross-Straits policy,” said Chen Xiancai, a senior researcher at the Taiwan Studies Center in Xiamen University.

Ma and the KMT have been pushing for closer ties with the mainland, including the resumption of semi-official cross-Straits talks, the establishment of a direct postal service and more direct links for shipping and air travel.

Both the KMT and the DPP have tried hard to sharpen their distinct images among voters, with the KMT advocating better cross-Straits ties and a stronger economy and the DPP casting itself as the defender of Taiwan that is seeking formal independence for the island, Chen Xiancai said.

The election on Saturday will give both parties an opportunity to see if their popularity is growing, he added.

Li Jiaquan, a senior researcher with the Institute of Taiwan studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, agreed with Chen.

“Saturday’s election will be the skirmish before next year’s election for municipality heads and the ‘presidential election’ in 2012 and the KMT will adjust cross-Straits policies if they fail to win enough support this time, including the cross-Straits policy,” he told China Daily.

Honduran lawmakers rejected the reinstatement of ousted President Manuel Zelaya during a heated debate which revisited details of the June 28 coup which polarized the nation.

A simple majority of 65 lawmakers in the 128-member body had voted against Zelaya’s return to the presidency shortly before 730 pm (0130 GMT), after more than six hours of debate.

The decision came amid pressure to resolve the five-month crisis, and after many Latin American governments warned they would not restore broken ties unless Zelaya was allowed to finish his term, which ends January 27.

The vote, however, put an end to a US-brokered crisis deal between Zelaya and de facto leader Roberto Micheletti, who took over after the coup.

Micheletti, who stepped down briefly over the elections, said before the vote that Zelaya was “history.”

As the political drama played out in the Congress, dozens of security forces faced off outside with backers of Zelaya, who has been holed up in the Brazilian embassy since returning in September.

Despite angry speeches from several deputies who slammed both the coup and a military crackdown which followed, only nine lawmakers had backed Zelaya’s return when the majority against it was reached.

The same Congress, along with the Supreme Court, business leaders and the military, had backed Zelaya’s expulsion over his plans to change the constitution, which they saw as a bid to undo term limits.

Lawmakers had received advice from the attorney general and the Supreme Court, which has said that criminal charges against Zelaya still stand.

“As far as I know, the Congress does not have the capacity to make this decision,” Zelaya told local Radio Globo ahead of the vote.

Zelaya had suggested that he would not resume the presidency even if Congress voted him back in, saying a US pact which left the decision to Congress had failed.

Divisions in the Central American nation have remained wide since controversial weekend elections held under the de facto regime, in which conservative Porfirio Lobo claimed a solid victory.

Lobo, who backed the coup, has vowed to work for national reconciliation.

His National Party, with 55 seats in Congress, voted against Zelaya’s return.

Lobo, who lost to Zelaya in 2005 elections, has not spoken out on the issue, prefering to leave the decision to Congress.

Zelaya suffered from splits within his Liberal Party which has a majority in Congress but is deeply divided over his swing to the left under the influence of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

The United States, a key business partner and donor, and the European Union, also a key donor, said they saw the weekend polls as an important first step forward out of the crisis, but many in Latin America, starting with powerhouse Brazil, said they served to whitewash the coup.

Rights groups said the elections were marred by the lack of international consensus, and slammed a military crackdown on journalists and activists since the coup.

China’s top relics protection authority has warned that many historic relics in the country had been erased by modern infrastructure projects.

According to a national survey carried out by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage (SACH), as many as 23,600 registered cultural sites “disappeared” in last three years, China Daily reported.

“Most of the disappeared historical sites were demolished during infrastructure construction, for example, highway and reservoir building,” Liu Xiaohe, deputy director of the survey was quoted as saying. “The nation will do all it can to preserve as much as it can.”

However, Sun Yuexin, founder of the Chinese Cultural Heritage Protection website, said the number of disappeared relics was as large as it was because there had been false reporting and exaggeration of such sites in the past.

“Some local governments would exaggerate the amount of relics they have, so as to ask for more funds from the central government to protect relics,” he was quoted by the newspaper as saying.

SACH has been working on the inventory since 2007 and hopes to have a full list of China’s historical sites, including ancient tombs, temples and architecture, by 2011.

As of the end of October, 776,200 historical sites had been surveyed and added to the list, said Shan Jixiang, director of SACH.

The last national survey was carried out in 1983. It failed to issue a final report.

At 19.00 hrs on Sunday virtually all of Spain will come to a halt to watch the most important club match of year as FC Barcelona entertains Real Madrid in the Camp Nou stadium.

The ‘Classico’ as it has come to be known is the biggest league match in Europe and probably the world as Spain’s top two sides continue their historic rivalry in front of almost 100,000 fans in the Camp Nou Stadium and a worldwide television audience in the tens of millions.

This year’s Classico promises to be more decisive that ever. Real Madrid spent over 250 million euros over the summer after watching how Barcelona won the hearts of football fans last season.

With the backbone of the side made up of players who have progressed through its youth system: players such as Leo Messi, Andres Iniesta, Xabi and Carles Puyol, Barcelona played some of the best football a club side has ever produced. The team is a domestic and European treble, winning the Primera Liga, the King’sCup and the Champions League in style, while Real Madrid fans could only look enviously on.

This season Barcelona has added the Spanish and European Supercups and in December flies to Dubai to play in the World ClubChampionships.

Indications are that it is placing a strain on a squad many think is too thinly spread for the massive amount of matches it will play this season.

Barcelona brought in Zlatan Ibrahimovich over the summer along with left back Maxwell and expensive central defender Chygrynskiy. Ibrahimovich has done well, but Chygrynskiy has struggled.

Indeed the biggest success this season has been young winger Pedro Rodriguez, who has won the fans over with some breathtaking displays of pace and confidence.

Real Madrid has tried to combat that success. Over the summer Florentino Perez returned as club president and spent money as it has never been spent before.

He paid a world record free of 95 million euros for Cristiano Ronaldo and a further 65 million euros to bring Kaka from AC Milan.

Karim Benzema and Xabi Alonso were further multi-million euro signings, while former youth team players Alvaro Arbeloa and Esteban Granero also returned to the club to give the side a more ‘homegrown’ feel than other projects.

Meanwhile players signed under the regime of former president Ramon Calderon, such as Arjen Robben and Wesley Sneijder, were sold.

Manuel Pellegrini was signed from Villarreal. Perez wanted Arsene Wenger, but the Arsenal coach said he could not join, because what Madrid was doing went against his philosophy of working with youngsters and bringing them on a players.

Pellegrini, whose nickname is the ‘Engineer’ enjoyed five excellent seasons at Villarreal, but has had a difficult time at the Santiago Bernabeu.

Even though his Madrid has registered the club’s best ever start to a season, the football on display has not been good. The side has struggled against lesser sides only to win thanks to moments of individual brilliance from Ronaldo or Gonzalo Higuain.

The fans still look enviously at the flowing football produced by a Barcelona outfit that looks like a true team, rather than a collection of expensive individuals.

When Madrid was humiliated in the King’s Cup by third tier side Alcorcon, losing 4-0, it looked as if Pellegrini would be sacked.

Should Pellegrini’s side be beaten heavily in the Camp Nou, he will probably lose his job. But if Ronaldo, Kaka or Benzema produces a moment of magic, his job will be safe and Madrid will take a big step towards the title.

Sunday’s game has it all: teamwork against talented individuals, faith in the youth system against the big spending side from the capital. At 19.00 hours all of Spain will sit down to watch the outcome.