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| China's spending on research and development has reached $ 378 billion |
According to the National Bureau of Statistics, China's spending on research and development increased 10.3% to 2.44 trillion yuan (about $ 378 billion) by 2020.
In a press release, the office said: The spending on research and development on research and development of new services or products amounted to 2.4% of China's GDP.
This number represents a new record for China, but the rate of growth has slowed over the past five years from 12.5% in 2019.
By the end of 2020, the office said, China was already operating 522 large national laboratories and 350 national technical research centers.
Last year, the China National Natural Science Foundation funded nearly 457,000 projects and granted 3.6 million patents, up from 40 percent in 2019.
In return, the United States plans to invest about $ 134 billion in research and development in 2020, according to a report released by the Federation of American Scientists in March.
The United States has yet to publish official research and development expenditures.
The much smaller UK will spend 11.4 billion pounds ($ 15.9 billion) on research and development in 2020, but it plans to double that spending to 22 billion pounds by 2024 or 2025.
In the past few years, Washington has implemented several measures to contain the rapid growth of China.
Last year, dozens of Chinese companies were blacklisted for national security reasons and banned the global shipment of chips from blacklisted telecoms equipment giant Huawei.
Huawei has repeatedly denied that its devices have back doors, and the Chinese government can use those back doors to carry out spying activities.
With the global supply chain increasingly destroyed, China and other countries have taken steps to strengthen their technological sovereignty and make them more dependent on critical core technologies such as 5G and semiconductor chips.
The Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation in Germany said in a report released in July that the growing geopolitical uncertainty and risk of global trade disputes over the past few decades has led to optimism about our economic interdependence.
According to reports, this week the NPC will announce more new measures that will enhance China's ability for independent innovation.