Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
China now publishes more scientific research than the United States, but on measures of quality, including publication of articles in the top-notch journals tracked by the Nature Index, it still falls short, with some notable subject exceptions.
The discipline’s historic prominence in China is underpinned by its crucial value to industrial processes. Committed funding sees it leading the way in emerging areas, such as nanomaterials.