China's National Statistical Bureau released national R&D spending data for 2017 on October 9. At RMB 1.76 trillion, R&D spending was up 12.3% from the previous year – compared to 10.6% annual growth in 2016. Chinese R&D spending is estimated to be close to 60% of the US level in 2017, up from 40% in 2013. The net annual increase in Chinese R&D spending is now more than the net increase in all of the OECD. Chinese R&D is growing faster than the rest of the world by a long shot – with growth rates below 3% in the US, EU, and Japan.

(Comment: The problem, though, is that these fast-growing inputs are still not translating into technological outputs in a consistent manner – we’ve pointed that out before.)