China spent a record 3.09 trillion yuan ($443 billion) on research and development in 2022, a 10.4 percent year-on-year increase that came from the nation’s accelerated efforts to enhance its innovation capability for more breakthroughs. According to the National Bureau of Statistics China’s R&D expenditures accounted for 2.55 percent of the GDP last year, which is 0.12 percentage point higher than the previous year. That percentage of R&D spending is close to the average of 2.67 percent among OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) economies. It moved China to the 12th place globally, ahead of France’s 2.35 percent and the Netherlands’ 2.32 percent.