A bone surgery robot is demonstrated at a medical facility in Beijing on August 6, 2025, highlighting the integration of AI and robotics in precision healthcare. Photo: VCG
China has entered the top 10 of the Global Innovation Index (GII) for the first time, according to the 2025 edition released by a UN body on Tuesday. The country also retained its lead among middle-income economies, supported by continued strength in R&D spending, high-tech exports and innovation outputs.
The shift underscores China’s rising role in shaping the world’s innovation landscape, even amid global economic slowdown and external challenges, analysts said.
Switzerland, Sweden, the US, the Republic of Korea and Singapore occupied the top five positions in the overall GII ranking, followed by the UK, Finland, the Netherlands, Denmark and China, which breaks into the top 10 for the first time, according to a news release published on the official website of World Intellectual Property Organization’s (WIPO).
The GII evaluates nearly 140 economies using around 80 indicators ranging from R&D spending, venture capital deals, high-tech exports and intellectual property filings, according to the release. WIPO describes it as “the world’s benchmark resource for policymakers, business leaders and others in promoting innovation and building strong innovation ecosystems.”
Marking its 18th edition, the index showed that a group of middle-income economies, led by countries like China, India, Türkiye and Vietnam, continue to climb the list. The report also highlighted that 17 low- and middle-income economies, such as India and Vietnam, are performing above expectations for their level of development.
Wang Peng, associate research fellow at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, pointed to China’s rise in the ranking as proof of the effectiveness of its innovation-driven economic strategy, which prioritizes self-reliance in core technologies, as well as deeper integration across high-tech, industry, and various application scenarios.
Chinese cities also stood out in the latest global innovation rankings. China’s Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), now ranked 15th, was among the four most significant improvers in 2025, as nine of the 17 economies in Southeast Asia, East Asia and Oceania improved their rankings, per the release.
In addition, WIPO’s release noted a rising concentration in China, which alone hosts 24 of the world’s top 100 innovation clusters. This cements the country’s position as the global leader in innovation clusters for the third consecutive year.
The UN body released its 2025 Innovation Cluster Ranking in September. The Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou cluster, a multi-cluster spanning an area around southern Chinese cities and the HKSAR, took the global top spot, surpassing Japan’s Tokyo-Yokohama cluster, per a WIPO report.
The report attributed Shenzhen’s ascent in part to its strong showing in VC deals. “The methodology change has contributed to having a new top-ranked cluster for 2025, reflecting that Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou performs more strongly on VC deals compared to Tokyo-Yokohama,” the report said.
Other Chinese clusters also ranked prominently, with Beijing placing fourth and Shanghai-Suzhou securing sixth, per the report.
Notably, beyond the top 100, emerging Chinese clusters such as Urumqi in Northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, ranked 218th, and Guilin in South China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, ranked 229th, have shown significant progress in science and technology innovation.
China’s dominance in both the performance of innovation clusters underscores its capacity for regional coordination, combining research, startups and R&D to drive breakthroughs on a global scale, Wang said.
Meantime, the report cautioned that slowing growth in innovation investments is clouding the innovation forecast. Global R&D growth dropped to 2.9 percent in 2024 from 4.4 percent in 2023, the lowest since 2010, with WIPO forecasting a further decline to 2.3 percent in 2025.
Despite challenges, Wang noted that China is well-positioned to remain a key engine of global innovation. “With supportive government policies and growing real-world applications, the country is set to unleash even more innovation momentum in the years ahead,” he added.