WASHINGTON, Nov. 10 (Xinhua) -- Innovation and the pre-existing digitization are reinforcing economic growth in China amid the COVID-19 pandemic, two researchers from the Intellisia Institute think-tank have said.

The pandemic caused more of a stagnation than a recession in China, as the shock of the pandemic has reinforced the trend toward digitization and innovation investment, and its accelerated impact has been gradually unleashed with the economy going back to normal, Xiaomeng Kang and Dingding Chen wrote in a passage published Tuesday on the online news magazine Diplomat.

The authors noted that the pandemic has severely hit developed countries, causing a steep reduction in the degree of their centrality in trade networks, but has not affected the central position of China, which retains 14th place in the top-performing economies in the Global Innovation Index 2020 released on Sept. 2, according to the UN's World Intellectual Property Organization.

Meanwhile, China's innovation and technology hub Shenzhen was given the spotlight in the coverage.

It said that support from the Chinese central government and dynamic young workforce make Shenzhen's rise "a case study for China's continued economic boom."

The central government has put great emphasis on the reform of the system for scientific and technological innovation and further improvement of innovation ecology, the researchers also said.