(Yicai) Sept. 17 — China climbed one spot this year to enter the top 10 of the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Global Innovation Index for the first time, reflecting the government’s strong emphasis on and support for intellectual property, according to a report released on Sept. 15.
Switzerland maintained its lead for the 15th consecutive year, followed by Sweden, the United States, the Republic of Korea and Singapore, according to the 2025 GII report entitled “Innovation at a Crossroads.” The United Kingdom, Finland, the Netherlands and Denmark also ranked among the top 10, just ahead of China.
In addition to China, countries like India, Vietnam and other middle-income economies such as Türkiye continued their upward trajectory, said the report, which ranked 139 economies. Others, including Senegal, Tunisia, Uzbekistan and Rwanda, were identified as dynamic innovation overperformers.
For the third consecutive year, China was also home to the most top 100 global innovation clusters, with 24 hubs making the list, followed by the US with 22 and Germany with seven. The Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou cluster ascended to the top spot for the first time, surpassing the Tokyo-Yokohama hub. Beijing and the Shanghai-Suzhou cluster also ranked high, coming in fourth and fifth, respectively. In total, China holds five of the top 15 spots.
China’s ranking in the WIPO’s annual Global Innovation Index has been steadily rising, making it the highest-ranked middle-income economy in the world, Daren Tang, director general of the WIPO, told Yicai in a previous interview. Over the past few years, China has built a robust intellectual property and innovation ecosystem, becoming the biggest contributor to global intellectual property. Today, the number of intellectual property filings from China exceeds the combined total of all other countries, which fully demonstrates the Chinese government’s strong emphasis on intellectual property.
Last year, research and development spending in the country surged nearly 50 percent from 2020, the last year of the 13th Five-Year Plan, increasing by CNY1.2 trillion (USD168.8 billion), according to Zheng Shanjie, director of the National Development and Reform Commission. R&D intensity climbed 0.1 percentage point year on year to 2.68 percent, surpassing the average level in European Union countries. China also has the largest R&D workforce in the world.
However, the report also highlighted a slowdown in global innovation investment. Global R&D spending growth slowed to 2.9 percent last year, the lowest rate since 2010. And while corporate R&D reached a record USD1.3 trillion, its growth in nominal terms also decelerated sharply. Venture capital deal counts tumbled 4.4 percent globally for the third consecutive year, signaling persistent investor caution outside a narrow set of sectors and geographies.
Editor: Kim Taylor