US Think Tank Warns of China's Rapid Tech Surge

The US think tank CSIS has drawn attention to China's surging high-tech trends, issuing a warning message. Scott Kennedy, a China economy expert at CSIS, analyzed China's key high-tech trends in a report titled 'China’s High-Tech Drive in 10 Charts' released on April 10.

China's ranking in the Global Innovation Index (GII) has significantly risen over the past two decades, currently placing third in the Asia-Pacific region and tenth globally. China's projected R&D expenditure for 2024 is $1.03 trillion, surpassing that of the United States ($1.01 trillion), and is expected to expand to 2.7% of its GDP. China has announced plans to increase its science budget by 7% annually for the next five years and boost its basic research budget by 16.3% in 2026. According to the 2025 Nature Index, nine out of the top 10 research institutions worldwide are Chinese. The Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) has analyzed that China leads in 66 out of 74 strategic technology fields.

In the semiconductor industry, advancements are observed in the low-cost segment. China has made progress in materials development, chip manufacturing, and assembly, testing, and packaging (ATP). Significant strides have also been made in AI-related memory and GPU chips. Deepseek has released AI models optimized for Huawei and Cambricon chips. Chinese semiconductor startup DYSAN TECHNOLOGY has stated it has entered the prototype verification stage for its 2nm AI GPU. This demonstrates China's concentrated resource allocation towards achieving self-sufficiency in semiconductor technology.

While China shows strength in its innovation capabilities, assessments also indicate that it still faces vulnerabilities in certain areas, such as its institutional foundation.