China leads the world in patent fillings and has the most patents
China has the most patents in terms of ranking of patents by Country globally, innovators from China continue to file nearly half of all global patent applications, By the end of 2023, Chinese inventors had filed more than 4 million patents.
According to its 15-year (2021-2035) IPR development plan, China has set a clear target that the value of patent-intensive and innovative industries should contribute 13% of the country's GDP by 2025.
China is now in a leading position of scientific research, the country’s scientists bring out some world’s top-ranking research, among others, chemistry, physics and materials science standouts, the country now rivals traditional scientific powerhouses like the United States and Europe.
Chinese scientists are better versed in their profession than their compeers, contribute more scientific research papers in distinguished magazines, that are highly cited as well.
According to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, China dominates now 37 of 44 key research fields, both in terms of share of total publications (quantity) and share of publications in the top 10 percent of highly cited publications (quality).
China has become a scientific superpower, The Economist said in a recent article.
China became a scientific superpower, from plant biology to superconductor physics, the country is at the cutting edge....The Economist surveyed the research landscape in the country and asked whether China could one day become a scientific superpower.
Today, that question has been unequivocally answered: “Yes.” Chinese scientists recently gained the edge in two closely watched measures of high-quality science, and the country’s growth in top-notch research shows no sign of slowing. The old science world order – dominated by the United States, Europe, and Japan – is coming to an end.
Today, China leads the world in the physical sciences, chemistry and Earth, and environmental sciences, according to both the Nature Index and citation measures. But the US and Europe still have substantial leads in both general biology and medical sciences. “Engineering is the ultimate Chinese discipline in the modern period,” says Professor Marginson, “I think that’s partly about military technology and partly because that’s what you need to develop a nation.”
Applied research is a Chinese strength. The country dominates publications on perovskite solar panels, for example, which offer the possibility of being far more efficient than conventional silicon cells at converting sunlight into electricity. Chinese chemists have developed a new way to extract hydrogen from seawater using a specialised membrane to separate out pure water, which can then be split by electrolysis. In May 2023, it was announced that the scientists, in collaboration with a state-owned Chinese energy company, had developed a pilot floating hydrogen farm off the country’s south-eastern coast.
China also now produces more patents than any other country, although many are for incremental tweaks to designs, as opposed to truly original inventions. New developments tend to spread and be adopted more slowly in China than in the West. But its strong industrial base, combined with cheap energy, means that it can quickly spin up large-scale production of physical innovations like materials. “That’s where China really has an advantage on Western countries,” says Jonathan Bean, CEO of Materials Nexus, a British firm that uses AI to discover new materials.
Growth in the quality and quantity of Chinese science looks unlikely to stop anytime soon. Spending on science and technology research is still increasing – the government has announced a 10 per cent increase in funding in 2024. And the country is training an enormous number of young scientists. And by 2025, Chinese universities are expected to produce twice as many PhD graduates in science and technology as the US ... See more from The Economist here
Based on good reasons and evidence, it is sound to conclude that both the quantity and quality of China’s research and patent activity have gone up.
Besides, Chinese government prioritizes innovation and technology, and that brings researchers, inventers together towards adopting modern technologies.
China has made rapid advancements in research and development and more generally, the ability to innovate, the country has a superfluous number of patent grants, more novelty technologies been born.
The story of China became a scientific superpower could be as potential fragmentation of China’s increasing influence globally as much about China’s unquestionable economic rise.
