China forging ahead as innovation powerhouse (3)

A worker assembles auto parts at a factory in Qinhuangdao, Hebei province, on Aug 3. YANG SHIRAO/XINHUA

Scientific Output

China also has the largest number of researchers and scientific publications in the world, and that number is growing faster than the EU and the US, according to the Rathenau Institute, which added that China has overtaken the US in scientific output.

"The phenomenal growth and unparalleled manpower in Chinese science results in the largest and fastest growing number of scientific publications worldwide," Rathenau said.

In 2019, China surpassed the US by producing more scientific publications than any other country in the world.

"The impressive increase in the number of Chinese publications is visible in every field of science," the institute added.

The number of Chinese patent applications made under the Patent Cooperation Treaty also increased from 19,000 in 2012 to 69,500 last year, making the country the top filer in the world for the third consecutive year.

As a result, China's ranking in the Global Innovation Index, released by the World Intellectual Property Organization, rose from 34th place in 2012 to 12th place last year.

Despite these achievements, some observers doubt that China can assume global technological leadership. However, Naubahar Sharif, acting head and professor of public policy at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, said there are very good reasons to believe it will.

He said there are four factors comprising technology leadership: R&D intensity, R&D personnel, the number of scientific publications and the number of patent applications.

The fact that China offers innovators a massive domestic market and that the government has the authority to shape industrial policy and provide infrastructure also contributes to China's growing technological capacity and eventual global technology leadership, he said in a recent paper.

At the same time, emerging technologies such as supercomputing, artificial intelligence, big data and blockchain have promoted the vigorous development of new industries and new business formats, such as the digital economy.

As an example of digital innovation, China's mobile payments make up almost 60 percent of all noncash retail transactions, and its mobile payment business was more than 11 times the value of the US.

According to a study published last year by the Ivey Business Journal, a publication of the Ivey Business School in Canada, Chinese tech companies labored under accusations that they were copycats for years, but it was time for the West to learn from Chinese firms about adopting digital innovation to generate sustainable profit streams.

In recent years, China has surpassed the US in certain areas, especially in wireless communication, mobile payments and certain applications of artificial intelligence, said George Koo, a retired Silicon Valley international business adviser.

There is still the misperception among leaders in Washington that China remains behind in every aspect of technology and only knows how to copy and imitate, Koo told China Daily.

"Presuming that we have nothing to learn from China will cost the US dearly," he said.