With record R&D spending, China is innovating at full steam to drive its high-quality development.

The country's total R&D expenditure exceeded 3.6 trillion RMB in 2024, up 8.3 percent year on year, according to preliminary estimates from the National Bureau of Statistics. The amount ranks second highest in the world.

The spending accounted for 2.68 percent of the country's GDP in 2024, an increase of 0.1 percentage point over the previous year.

As a key part of sci-tech input, R&D spending is a significant barometer of a country or region's sci-tech prowess, innovation capacity and competitiveness.

China's continuously increasing R&D investment demonstrates its resolve to pursue a path of innovation to achieve Chinese modernization.

The country's R&D expenditure surpassed one trillion RMB in 2012, two trillion RMB in 2019, and three trillion RMB in 2022.

Such investment is bearing fruit from basic cutting-edge research to significant original innovation in science, technology and applications, making China one of the world's leading producers of high-quality scientific research.

A series of new breakthroughs have been made in fields such as quantum technology, life science, material science and space science.

Last June, China's Chang'e-6 brought the first samples from the moon's far side to Earth, making history in space exploration endeavors.

Thanks to such efforts, the country has steadily moved up in various global innovation index rankings in recent years. It climbed to the 11th place in the Global Innovation Index 2024 released by the World Intellectual Property Organization, edging closer to the top 10.

It is particularly noteworthy that China's spending in basic research reached 249.7 billion RMB in 2024, up 10.5 percent year on year. The figure accounted for 6.91 percent of the country's total R&D expenditure, an increase of 0.14 percentage point over the previous year.

Meanwhile, various business entities are playing an increasingly important role in R&D spending.

Taking DeepSeek, a pioneering Chinese AI company, for example: the R&D of its renowned large language models is financed by a hedge fund, showcasing that diversified funding channels are fueling the country's technological breakthroughs.

A nation will thrive when innovation blooms. As China marches towards becoming an innovation powerhouse, more exciting sci-tech breakthroughs are on the way.