Accessible Version
An Assessment of China's Innovative Capacity, Accessible Data
Figure 1. Income and productivity in China
Figure 1 illustrates income and productivity in China through two figure side by side.
Figure (a), titled "Chinese GDP per capita," shows two metrics from 2004 to 2024, with different y-axis scales. The left y-axis, in 2015 USD, ranges from 2000 to 14000. Blue bars represent China's GDP per capita, increasing from about 3000 USD in 2004 to around 13000 USD in 2024. The right y-axis, as a percentage from 2.5 percent to 22.5 percent, corresponds to a black line showing the ratio of China's GDP per capita to the US. This line rises from roughly 5 percent in 2004 to about 20 percent by 2024.
Figure (b), labeled "China's total factor productivity," spans from 1990 to 2019. The y-axis ranges from 0.75 to 1.05, with 2017 as the reference year (1.00). A single black line represents productivity, starting at about 0.8 in 1990. It exhibits a steep rise in the first decade of the 2000s reaching about 1.05, followed by a period of stagnation around that level and a noticeable decline since the early 2010s, falling to about 0.95 toward the end of the 2010s.
Note: In figure (b), data is in constant national prices.
Source: figure (a) - WDI via Haver Analytics; figure (b) - Penn World Tables.
Figure 2. R&D spending
Figure 2 shows R&D spending trends for the U.S., Korea, and China from 1991 to 2023, presented in two figures side by side. Both figures use percent of GDP for the y-axis and years from 1991 to 2023 for the x-axis.
Figure (a), titled "Gross R&D expenditure as a share of GDP," shows the U.S. (black line) starting around 2.5 percent in 1991, rising to 3.5 percent by 2023. Korea (blue line) begins near 1.5 percent in 1991, increasing to about 5.0 percent by 2023. China (red line) starts lowest at about 0.5 percent in 1991, steadily climbing to around 2.5 percent by 2023.
Figure (b), titled "Basic R&D expenditure as a share of GDP," uses a different scale, ranging from 0 to 0.8 percent. The U.S. line begins around 0.4 percent in 1991, rising to about 0.5 percent by 2023. Korea's data starts in 1995 (as noted below the figure) at about 0.3 percent, increasing to roughly 0.7 percent by 2023. China's line begins near 0 percent in 1991, showing a gradual increase to about 0.2 percent by 2023.
Note: In figure (b), data only available after 1995 for Korea.
Source: figure (a) and figure (b) - OECD, Main Science and Technology Indicators.
Figure 3. Patents and scientific publications
Figure 3, titled "Patents and scientific publications," consists of four figures labeled a, b, c, and d.
Figure a) titled “Patents per million persons” shows data for U.S. (black), Korea (blue), and China (red) from 1985 to 2021. The U.S. line increases steadily to about 1000. Korea's line rises sharply from about 100 to 3600. China's line remains low until 2010, then rises rapidly to meet US levels by 2016.
Figure b) titled “IP5 patents per million persons” uses the same color scheme as figure a. The data shows 1980 to 2020. The U.S. line rises steadily from about 100 to about 150. The Korea line shows the most growth, climbing to about 500. China's line remains low but shows a slight pickup towards the end.
Figure c) titled “Science and engineering publications”, displays data in thousands for U.S., Germany, China, Japan, India, and U.K. from 2003 to 2022. China's line (red) shows dramatic growth, surpassing all others by 2022 at nearly 900 thousand. Other countries show modest growth or remain relatively stable.
Figure d) titled “Highly cited science and technology articles index”, uses the same countries as figure c, from 2003 to 2020, with an "Index = 1" scale. China’s index still exhibits a noticeable increase, but not as dramatic as the aggregate number of publications shown in figure c). The U.S. and U.K. start highest but decline slightly. Germany and Japan remain stable.
Note: In figure (a), data are domestic patents registered by residents. In figure (c), scientific articles are fractionally counted and classified by author's institutional address. In figure (d), the highly cited article index is a country's share of the top 1 percent most-cited science and engineering publications divided by the country's share of all science and engineering publications.
Source: figure (a) – OECD, Patents by Technology; figure (b) – OECD, WDI; figure (c) and figure (d) – National Science Foundation.
Figure 4. IP5 patents, global shares
Figure 4 illustrates IP5 patents and global shares through four figures labeled a, b, c, and d. All figures show data for the U.S. (black line), Korea (blue line), and China (red line) from 1985 to 2020, with the y-axis representing "Percent of world total".
Figure (a), titled "IP5 patent shares," shows the U.S. starting highest around 25 percent, declining to about 20 percent by 2020. Korea and China both start near 0 percent, with Korea rising steadily to about 10 percent and China showing rapid growth after 2010, reaching about 15 percent by 2020. The y-axis ranges from 0 to 30 percent.
Figure (b), labeled "Artificial intelligence fields," depicts the U.S. fluctuating between 30-40 percent, ending around 25 percent. Korea rises gradually to about 15 percent before dropping to around 10 percent in 2020. China shows dramatic growth after 2010, reaching about 20 percent by 2020. The y-axis scale ranges from 0 to 50 percent.
Figure (c), "Nanotechnology fields," shows the U.S. fluctuating between 20-35 percent. Korea grows to about 20 percent by 2020. China's rises rapidly during the 2010s climbing above 15 percent by 2020. The y-axis scale ranges from 0 to 40 percent.
Figure (d), "Biotechnology fields," presents the U.S. starting slightly below 40 percent and declining to about 35 percent by 2010. Korea and China both start near 0 percent, with Korea reaching slightly below 10 percent and China showing rapid growth after 2010, surpassing Korea to reach about 15 percent by 2020. The y-axis scale ranges from 0 to 50 percent.
Source: figure (a), figure (b), figure (c), figure (d) - OECD, Patents by Technology.
Figure 5. Technology fields of Chinese patents in the USPTO data
Figure 5, titled "Technology fields of Chinese patents in the USPTO data," presents three pie charts showing the distribution of Chinese patents across various technology fields for the years 2005, 2011, and 2018. In 2005, Electricity dominated with 35 percent, followed by Physics at 22 percent, Human Necessities, Performing Operations; Transportation, and Chemistry and Metallurgy each accounted for about 11- 13 percent. By 2011, Electricity increased to 40 percent, while most other categories decreased slightly. In 2018, Electricity remained the largest category at 41 percent, but Physics increased to 30 percent. Other fields generally decreased in share.
Note: Legend entries appear in counterclockwise chart order. Source: USPTO PatentsView.
Figure 6. Share of Chinese patents in highly cited patents in the USPTO data
Figure 6, titled "Share of Chinese patents in highly cited patents in the USPTO data," shows a figure with two lines representing the share of Chinese patents from 2010 to 2022. The blue line represents China’s share among foreign patents (left scale), while the black line represents its share among all patents (right scale). Both lines show an upward trend over time. The share of foreign patents starts at about 3 percent in 2010 and rises steadily to slightly below 17. The share of all patents begins slightly above 0 percent in 2010 and increases to about 4 percent by 2022.
The left y-axis, labeled "Share of foreign patents," ranges from 0 to 18 in increments of 3. The right y-axis, labeled "Share of all patents," ranges from 0 to 6 in increments of 1. The x-axis shows years from 2010 to 2022 in 4-year intervals.
Note: Patents are in the top decile of USPTO patents by forward citation count. Source: USPTO PatentsView.
Figure 7. Historical comparison of China and Korea
Figure 7, titled "Historical comparison of China and Korea," consists of two bar figures comparing various metrics between China and Korea.
Figure (a), labeled "R&D expenditure" with the y-axis ranging from 0 to 1.5, shows two bars representing China’s research expenditure ( percent of GDP) relative to Korea. The black bar for "R&D" is about 1.25 times higher than Korea's 1995 value. The red bar for "Basic research" is approximately 0.7 times the 1995 Korean value.
Figure (b), labeled "Patenting" with a y-axis ranging from 0 to 20, displays three bars representing patents per million population. The bars compare the 2017-2019 average Chinese patents (per million population) relative to the 1985-1987 average Korean patents (per million population). The blue bar for "Patents" is about 10 times higher than Korea. The orange bar for "IP5 patents" is roughly 4 times higher, and the green bar for "Triadic patents" is approximately 19 times higher than Korea.
Note: In figure (a), measures are ratios calculated by dividing 2023 Chinese research expenditures ( percent of GDP) to 1995 Korean research expenditures ( percent of GDP). In figure (b), measures are ratios calculated by dividing the 2017-2019 average Chinese patents (per million population) with 1985-1987 average Korean patents (per million population).
Source: figure (a) – OECD, Main Science and Technology Indicators; figure (b) – OECD, Patents by Technology; WDI.