China's R&D Personnel Reach 7.95 Million Full-Time Equivalents, Spending Hits RMB 3.93 Trillion
China's full-time equivalent R&D personnel rose from 5.24 million in 2020 to 7.95 million in 2025, maintaining the world's top ranking for 13 consecutive years. R&D spending grew from RMB 2.44 trillion to RMB 3.93 trillion over the same period, an average annual increase of 10%. More than 19,000 joint platforms were built by universities and enterprises, supporting systematic innovation efforts.
Cities including Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou have recently leveraged their respective strengths and characteristics, coordinating efforts among government, enterprises, and universities to enhance systematic innovation capabilities. Given the broad scope, multiple participants, and complex factors involved in scientific and technological innovation, systematic advancement is a key pathway to improving the overall efficiency of the national innovation system.
Domestic innovation resources continue to concentrate, providing support for systematic efforts. Data show that China's full-time equivalent R&D personnel increased from 5.24 million person-years in 2020 to 7.95 million person-years in 2025, ranking first globally for 13 consecutive years. Research and experimental development spending rose from RMB 2.44 trillion in 2020 to RMB 3.93 trillion in 2025, with an average annual growth rate of 10%, ranking second worldwide. More than 19,000 research and transformation platforms were jointly built by universities and enterprises, accelerating the movement of innovation results from laboratories to production lines.
Internationally, major science and technology powers all regard systematic innovation as a strategic priority, though their approaches differ. The U. S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency focuses on high-risk, high-reward frontier technology development through flat management and project manager systems. Belgium's Interuniversity Microelectronics Centre advances research through deep industrial chain integration and property rights rules that establish ownership before research begins. China holds differentiated advantages in its new nationwide system, the full chain from basic research to commercialization, and central-local coordination with regional linkages, having formed a spatial pattern where central cities conduct research and peripheral cities handle transformation.
Deployment of tasks for the 15th Five-Year Plan period has begun. In advancing research missions, efforts will focus on breaking through key technical challenges in frontier and priority areas, drawing lessons from major projects such as the Chang'e-6 lunar far-side sample return and the Long March 10B sea-based network recovery, making forward-looking arrangements for major scientific infrastructure, and promoting AI-empowered scientific research. In building scientific and technological strength, national laboratories, national research institutions, high-level research universities, and leading technology enterprises will optimize their functional positioning and strengthen collaboration. In regional coordination, the layout of three international science and technology innovation centers and multiple comprehensive national science centers will be used to enhance regional division of labor and the development of distinctive innovation hubs, reducing homogeneous competition.