​Remarkable Results in Innovation-Driven Development and Stable Improvement of Scientific and Technological Strength

Remarkable Results in Innovation-Driven Development and Stable Improvement of Scientific and Technological Strength

—Series Report X on the Economic and Social Development Achievements since the 18th CPC National Congress

Source: National Bureau of Statistics 

Published on: September 27, 2022 Characters: 4932

Since the 18th CPC National Congress, the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has placed science and technology innovation at the core of China's overall development, strengthening innovation-driven top-level design, forward-looking planning and systematic deployment. All regions and departments have comprehensively implemented the new development philosophy and deeply implemented the innovation-driven development strategy. China's scientific and technological strength has been significantly enhanced, achieving a progressive improvement of the innovation system and a new level of innovation capability, narrowing the gap with the world's frontier level, and reaching the 12th place in the world in the comprehensive ranking of national innovation capability. Scientific and technological innovation has led high-quality development, served the major strategic needs of the country, improved people's well-being, escorted people's life and health, provided important support for building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, and provided a powerful guarantee for starting a new journey of national rejuvenation and creating new strengths for development.

I. Comprehensive Institutional Reform for Promoting Historic Breakthroughs in Sci-tech Investment

The reform of the science and technology system has been deeply advanced. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, the reform of science and technology system has been comprehensively and deeply advanced. In 2016, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council issued the Outline of the National Strategy for Innovation-Driven Development, anchoring the strategic goals of scientific and technological innovation. The 19th CPC National Congress and its plenary sessions have made a series of major arrangements for scientific and technological innovation, and launched a series of major reforms, including the management system for scientific and technological planning, the knowledge-value-oriented distribution mechanism, the management of government funding for scientific research, and the strengthening of scientific and technological ethical governance. Concrete measures have been implemented to promote mass entrepreneurship and innovation, encourage more investment in scientific and technological innovation, strengthen cooperation among innovation entities, and facilitate the transfer and application of scientific and technological achievements. With the accelerated development of a new type of nationwide system, continuous improvement of the national strategic scientific and technological forces, the basic institutional framework for scientific and technological innovation has been basically established in China, and substantial progress has been made in the reform of key areas and key links of scientific and technological innovation.

Investment in R&D [1] has made a historic breakthrough. Fund investment is the premise and guarantee for scientific and technological innovation activities. In 2021, China's R&D investment reached RMB 2,795.6 billion, ranking second in the world. From 2013 to 2021, AAGR of China's R&D spending at current prices hit 11.7%, significantly faster than that of the United States (6.5%), the European Union (3.5%), Japan (1.3%) and other major economies; R&D intensity (ratio of R&D expenditure to GDP) has jumped from 1.91% in 2012 to 2.44% in 2021, which is close to the average of OECD countries and reaches the level of medium developed countries.

Government support and guidance have produced remarkable results. China has made great efforts to adjust and optimize the mechanism for organizing science and technology tasks, and reformed and improved the management of government funding for scientific research, providing strong support for the implementation of science and technology plans and programs and tasks in key areas. In 2019, national fiscal expenditure on science and technology exceeds RMB 1 trillion for the first time, reaches RMB 1,076.7 billion in 2021, an increase of 92.2% over 2012. The proportion of government expenditure on science and technology has basically stayed above 4% in recent years. Government policies to guide and encourage enterprise innovation have been gradually implemented. With the sustained expansion of the scope of R&D expenses plus deduction policy and tax relief, enterprises above designated size have enjoyed tax relief amounting to RMB 282.9 billion in 2021, which is nine times of 2012, effectively stimulating enterprises to continuously increase R&D investment. According to the questionnaire survey of entrepreneurs, the average approval rating of enterprises above designated size for the 10 innovation support policies [2] in 2021 reached 82.9%, 17.0 percentage points higher than that in 2016.

The talent pool for sci-tech innovation is strengthened. Thanks to the strategy for invigorating China through science and education and the workforce development strategy, China’s talent pool for innovation has constantly expanded. In 2021, the total number of R&D personnel, calculated by equivalent full-time workload, reached 5.62 million, 1.7 times that of 2012; the total number of R&D personnel in China has ranked first in the world for nine consecutive years since surpassing the US in 2013. With the gradual improvement of the incentive and evaluation system of knowledge value-oriented research talents, and a more optimized talent structure, the number of R&D personnel per 10,000 employed persons in China has increased from 61 in 2012 to 115 in 2021, and the proportion of R&D personnel with bachelor's degree or above has increased from 50.2% to about 63%, providing a key source of power for scientific and technological innovation.

II．Enhancement of Sci-tech Innovation Capacity with Fruitful Achievements

New breakthroughs have been made in original innovation. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, China has attached great importance to basic research, formulated Opinions on Comprehensively Strengthening Basic Scientific Research and the 10-year action plan on basic research, etc., and continued to enhance the capacity of basic research. In 2021, the investment in basic research hit RMB 181.7 billion, 3.6 times that of 2012; with an AAGR of 15.4% from 2013 to 2021, 3.7 percentage points higher than the national R&D expenditure during the same period; accounting for 6.5% of the total investment in R&D, an increase of 1.66 percentage points compared with 2012, and maintained a momentum of growth. Breakthroughs have been made in basic fields such as quantum science, space science, iron-based superconductivity, stem cells and synthetic biology, and a number of landmark and pioneering original achievements have been made. Tu Youyou won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Wang Yifang won the Breakthrough Prize in fundamental physics, and the research of Pan Jianwei's team on multi-degree of freedom quantum teleportation ranked first among the top 10 breakthroughs in international physics in 2015.

Strategic technologies are continuously strengthened. Guided by the country's strategic needs, China has successfully set up the first batch of national laboratories, and a number of key projects such as the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST) and the Scattered Fission Neutron Source have been put into operation. The national key laboratory system has been re-organized, with 533 national key laboratories and 191 national engineering centers in operation at the end of 2021. There are also 1,636 national corporate technology centers, and the layout of innovation bases has been optimized and upgraded. The Dark Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE) “Wukong” and the Quantum-communications satellite “Micius” were launched into orbit, the “Striver” manned submersible dived deep into the ocean and touched seabed. The Tianwen-1 probe kicked off China’s Mars exploration mission, and the Tianhe Core Module of the Chinese Space Station was successfully launched and put into operation, manned space engineering has made giant leaps forward, epitomizing China’s strength in science and technology.

The quality of paper and patent output has been continuously improved. The output of papers and invention patents directly represents the capability of scientific research. In 2020, the three major foreign retrieval tools (SCI, EI and CPCI-S) included 970,000 Chinese scientific and technological papers, 2.5 times more than in 2012; during the 10-year period from 2011 to 2021, the number of highly cited international papers in various disciplines of Chinese scholars reached 42,900, accounting for 24.8% of the world share, ranking second in the world after the United States (44.5%), and becoming an important contributor to global knowledge innovation. The number of invention patents granted in 2021 reached 696,000, 3.2 times that of 2012; the number of international patent applications submitted by Chinese applicants through the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) reached 69,500, ranking first in the world for three consecutive years. At the end of 2021, the number of high-value invention patents per 10,000 people in China reached 7.5, up 1.2 from the previous year, continuing the ascend momentum, and the quality of intellectual property output has made great progress.

Achievements in high technologies are mushrooming. With the successful implementation of key sci-tech projects and R&D programs, a number of core technologies have seen major breakthroughs and the pace of commercialization has accelerated, leading to fruitful results in the fields of the third-generation nuclear power, 5G, new energy vehicles, supercomputing, high-speed railroads and large aircraft manufacturing to name but a few; integrated circuits, key components and basic software research and development have made impressive progress as well. China’s total exports of hi-tech products increased from USD 601.2 billion in 2012 to USD 979.6 billion in 2021.

III. Continuous Enhancement of Innovation by Enterprises, with Better ecosystems for Entrepreneurship

The technological innovation capacity of enterprises has been greatly improved. Enterprises of all types have played a major role in investing in, organizing scientific and technological innovation, and the share of enterprises in industrial enterprises above designated size achieving technological innovation increased from 31.0% in 2013 to 47.4% in 2021. Leading enterprises have effectively responded to the containment and challenges from the outside by steadily improving their technological strength. According to the 2021 EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard, 597 Chinese enterprises had entered the rank of the Top 2,500 companies in R&D, which was 6.4 times more than in 2012, ranking second globally. The total R&D expenditure of the listed Chinese enterprises has accounted for nearly 1/6 of the global listed enterprises. With the continuous upgrading of mass entrepreneurship and innovation, the technological innovation capability of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) has been rapidly improved. From 2013 to 2021, the R&D expenditure of SMEs above designated size increased by an average annual rate of 14.5%, much faster than that of large enterprises. In recent years, China has fostered more than 40,000 state-level specialized new enterprises, 4,762 "little giants" and 848 individual champion enterprises, becoming a new force for strengthening the industrial chain through innovation cooperation.

The development of regional innovation hubs has been accelerated. The development of Beijing, Shanghai and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area as three international science and technology innovation centers has been deepened, ranking among the top 10 global science and technology innovation clusters and keeping raising the level of innovation and internationalization. The distinctive four comprehensive national science centers in Huairou of Beijing, Zhangjiang of Shanghai, Hefei of Anhui and the Greater Bay Area, and the Xiongan New Area have been built to serve as a basic science platform for future development. As the gathering place of regional science and technology innovation resources, the number of national high-tech industrial development zones has grown from 105 in 2012 to 169 in 2021, and the number of enterprises in the zones has increased from 63,000 to more than 160,000, fostering and strengthening a number of high-quality industrial clusters, and realizing the interaction and complementarity and interconnection with 23 independent innovation demonstration zones and 78 national innovation cities. Science and technology innovation has provided strongly support to the new pattern of the large-scale development of the western region, the full revitalization of the northeastern region, the rise of the central region, and the opening-up of Hainan for cooperation, steadily improving the new mechanism for coordinated regional innovation and development.

Environment for innovation continues to improve. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, China has gradually established a research classification and evaluation system with quality, contribution and performance as the core guidance, carried out a campaign to reduce the burden on researchers, resolutely rectified undesirable tendencies in personnel appointment, and promoted the change of work and academic atmosphere. optimized and adjusted the organization and implementation mechanism of major scientific and technological tasks, created a new organizational management model such as "opening competition mechanism to select the best candidates" and "horse-racing system", encouraged leading enterprises to establish innovation consortia, and strengthened integrated innovation around innovation chains and industrial chains. Efforts have been made to build an open and interconnected market for technology factors and an intermediary system for science and technology to promote the rational use of science and technology innovation resources and the transfer and transformation of achievements. In 2021, China’s technology market saw 670,000 transfers with a total transaction amount of RMB 3,729.4 billion, 2.4 times and 5.8 times that of 2012, respectively. At the end of 2021, there were 2,551 state-registered crowdsourcing spaces and 212 demonstration bases for mass entrepreneurship and innovation, providing a platform of fundraising and cooperation for start-ups.

IV. Accelerated Industrial Transformation to Drive High-quality Development

Scientific and technological innovation has improved the quality and efficiency of industrial development. Enterprise technology innovation has created conditions for improving the quality of product supply. In 2021, 959,000 new product projects were developed by industrial R&D enterprises above designated size, 2.9 times that of 2012; and annual revenue of RMB 29.6 trillion was achieved from new products, 2.7 times more than in 2012. China has entered the international market with new innovative products, and the proportion of enterprises above designated size whose product innovation capacity could reach the new international level was 18.8% of all innovative enterprises. Scientific and technological innovation has contributed to the optimization and upgrading of industrial structure. In 2021, the R&D expenditure of hi-tech manufacturing industry and equipment manufacturing industry above designated size was RMB 568.46 billion and RMB 1,058.16 billion, 3.3 times and 2.7 times of that in 2012, respectively. Thanks to the rapid growth of R&D investment, hi-tech manufacturing industry and equipment manufacturing industry have maintained a good development momentum, effectively promoting the continuous upgrading of China's industrial structure.

Innovation has resulted in new dynamism of the Chinese economy. With the deepening of the "Internet Plus", new industries, new forms of business and new business models based on new technologies such as mobile Internet and the Internet of Things are booming. In 2021, the added value of the "three new" economy accounted for 17.3% of GDP, a year-on-year increase of 0.2 percentage points. Informatization and digitalization have become a powerful engine driving the transformation and upgrade of traditional industries. In 2021, nearly half of industrial enterprises above designated size carried out IT-related activities. Quick breakthroughs in the new generation of IT have given rise to big data, cloud computing, and blockchain applications, opening new horizons for digitalization and economic growth. In 2021, the number of Chinese unicorn enterprises exceeded 300, with a total valuation of more than USD 1.5 trillion.

Scientific and technological innovation has served the country's major strategic needs. Scientific and technological innovation has contributed to poverty alleviation and rural revitalization. More than 800,000 science and technology commissioners have long been active in poverty alleviation in rural areas. Focusing on the revitalization of the seed industry and food security, China has strengthened research and breeding technologies and demonstration and promotion of new crop varieties, with more than 1,500 new agricultural plant varieties being authorized annually since 2012. Targeting at energy conservation and consumption reduction and "carbon peaking and carbon neutrality" has helped reduce energy consumption per unit of GDP by 26.4% in 2021 compared with 2012. Carrying out the "Action Plan for Science and Technology at the Winter Olympics", more than 200 scientific and technological achievements were applied in the construction of venues, snow and ice manufacturing, contributing to the success of the Beijing Winter Olympics. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, with the substantial increase in scientific research strength, China has significantly improved the independent development capacity of major products, major technology and equipment, as well as the level of complete sets of systems, vigorously supporting the construction of major projects such as the South-North Water Diversion, Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, Sichuan-Tibet Railway, etc. Science and technology innovation has also provided strong support for public security, emergency disaster relief, pollution prevention and control and other important tasks.

V. Progress in Livelihood-related Technology to Deliver Better Life and Health

Science and technology play a key role in combating the Covid-19 pandemic. The development of science and technology has promoted the steady improvement of China's public health service, contributing to the breakthroughs in self-innovative drugs, self-developed medical devices and self-developed advanced therapies. China has continued to carry out research in COVID-19 vaccines, drugs, detection reagents, animal models, and virus origin tracing, and science and technology have provided a strong guarantee for China’s routine fight against the infectious disease. In addition, new technologies and new forms of business, such as health codes, online offices, online courses and cloud services, have been widely applied, effectively ensuring steady economic recovery and stable social operation.

Sci-tech innovation also helps to improve people’s well-being. The rapid progress of science and technology has helped to upgrade the services in various fields of people's livelihood, increasingly improving the professional and technical services provided by China in the fields of quality inspection, meteorology, marine, navigation and mapping. By the end of 2021, China had 869 national quality inspection centers and 724 certification bodies for product quality, system and service, and had certified 870,000 enterprises in total, a significant increase over 2012, vigorously promoting the building of China into a country strong on quality. Since the implementation of the 13th Five-Year Plan, the national meteorological science data sharing service has averaged more than 500,000 GB of data each year, and surveying and mapping departments have provided an average of more than 250,000 topographic maps each year. The 30 satellites of BeiDou-3 Navigation Satellite System have completed networking and officially launched satellite navigation services, promoting more refined and precise social governance. As of the end of 2020, there were more than 570 science and technology museums of various types in China, 1.6 times more than in 2012, popularizing science among 40 million people each year; China’s public literacy in science had reached 10.6%, up 4.4 percentage points over 2015.

Since the 18th CPC National Congress, China has leaped to a new level of scientific and technological strength, where technological innovation has never had such a profound impact on the national future and well-being of people's lives as it does today. However, we should also be soberly aware that with the rapid progress of the new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation, science and technology are becoming increasingly permeable, diffuse and disruptive. Against the requirements of high quality development, China still faces many challenges in the field of science and technology innovation to make breakthroughs in the original innovation capability and key core technologies, improve the supply of high quality scientific and technological achievements, and enhance the overall effectiveness of the independent innovation system. In the future, we should further enhance our awareness of risks and opportunities, focus on core technologies and key areas, increase capital input and talent incentives, optimize resource allocation and innovation ecology, improve institutions, mechanisms and policy systems, and accelerate our efforts to realize the great goal of building a world power in science and technology.

Note:

[1] refers to Research and Experimental Development, which is abbreviated as R&D in English and "yanfa" in Chinese. R&D expenditure is an important index commonly used internationally to measure the investment level of scientific and technological innovation.

[2] The 10 innovation support policies include preferential policies on tax deduction for R&D expenses, preferential policies on income tax for high-tech enterprises, policies on accelerated depreciation of special instruments and equipment for R&D activities, preferential policies on VAT exemption for technology transfer , technology development income and income tax reduction for technology transfer, policies on encouraging enterprises to attract and cultivate talents, policies on financial support, policies on creating and protecting intellectual property rights, policies on supporting priority development industries, policies on promoting the transformation of scientific and technological achievements and policies on promoting mass entrepreneurship and innovation.