R&D input to further fuel innovation

China's strength in sci-tech innovation has taken a qualitative leap in recent years. According to the 2022 Global Innovation Index released by the World Intellectual Property Organization, the country has risen to the 11th place and remains the only middle-income economy in the top 30.

However, Luo Zhongwei, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Institute of Industrial Economics, said China still lags behind some developed countries in R&D spending on basic research. He emphasized the significance of "pouring more capital into nurturing high-tech talent and speeding up the industrialization of scientific and technological achievements".

More efforts should be made to beef up investment in technological frontiers and forward-looking fields, such as quantum information, artificial intelligence, biological sciences, new energy and new materials, and achieve technological breakthroughs in key fields through independent innovation amid a rising tide of protectionism in some countries, Luo added.

TCL Technology Group, a Chinese consumer electronics maker, said that its R&D expenditure reached 10.78 billion yuan in 2022, an increase of 22.9 percent year-on-year. The company vowed to continue to increase its investment in strategic emerging segments like new-generation display technology, new energy and semiconductor materials, and further improve its innovation capabilities.