China's investment in research and development (R&D) is second only to the United States. Here, we analyse the data to give a snapshot of how and where the money is spent.
Data are from 2013, unless indicated.
2013 conversion rate: 1 yuan = US$0.16
The broad perspective
In 2013, China’s R&D spending increased by 15% on 2012 — second only to the United States. Around 75% of spending is by industry, which also contributes the majority of the funds. Looking at the breakdown, the largest category of research is technology development1. All figures are in billions of yuan.
Investment hotspots
There are 31 areas under central government control that together spend mainland China’s R&D budget. For some, this represents a more sizeable proportion of their local gross domestic product (GDP) than for others1.
Higher-education institutions
In 2012, 1,025 universities received a total of 76.9 billion yuan in R&D funding from the government, which they supplemented by raising additional money from other sources. Universities may be under the direct control of government ministries (for example agriculture, education or information) or of local government. Complicating the picture, some reports wrap R&D funding into the larger category of science and technology (S&T) funding, which totals 117 billion yuan and includes operational costs2. All figures are in billions of yuan.
Government funding
There are three main agencies, detailed in shaded pink bars to the centre right, that account for nearly one-third of central government R&D spend3. All figures are in billions of yuan.
References
National Bureau of Science and Technology of the Ministry of Finance (2013)
Higher Education Science and Technology statistics from the Ministry of Education (2013)
China's Ministry of Finance (2013)
Sun, Y . & Cao C . Science 345, 1006–1008 (2014).
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Ni, X. China's research & development spend. Nature 520, S8–S9 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/520S8a
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/520S8a
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