On September 16, 2025, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) released the Global Innovation Index (GII) 2025. China (10th) broke into the Top 10 for the first time, while maintaining its lead among the 36 upper middle-income economies. Since 2013, China has advanced a total of 25 places. This demonstrates the remarkable achievements of China's innovation-driven development strategy and its accelerated efforts to build itself into both a scientific and technological powerhouse and an intellectual property (IP) powerhouse.

The GII provides a comprehensive analysis of innovation ecosystems across 139 economies in terms of Innovation Input and Innovation Output. It covers seven pillars: Institutions, Human Capital and Research, Infrastructure, Market Sophistication, Business Sophistication, Knowledge and Technology Outputs, and Creative Outputs. These are further broken down into 21 sub-pillars and 78 detailed indicators.

According to the GII, in terms of Innovation Output, China continues to rank among the global leaders with a clear advantage, with its ranking rising to 5th, up two places from 2024. In terms of Innovation Input, it ranked 19th globally, up four places from 2024.

First, China ranked first globally in several IP indicators. These indicators include the number of designs contained in resident industrial design applications filed at a given national or regional office, resident utility model applications filed at the national patent office, and classes in resident trademark applications issued at a given national or regional office (per billion PPP$ GDP), as well as the share of creative goods exports in total trade. In addition, China ranked second worldwide in indicators including the number of resident patent applications filed at a given national or regional patent office (per billion PPP$ GDP), state of cluster development and the share of GERD financed by business.

Second, China led with the most innovation clusters globally. It was home to 24 of the world's top 100 innovation clusters. Among them, the Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou cluster topped the global rankings for the first time, while Beijing (4th) and Shanghai-Suzhou (6th) also entered the top 10. These clusters are hubs for PCT applications, scientific and technological innovation, and venture capital investment.

Third, China's brand value remained second in the world. Among the top 5,000 global brands in 2025, the total value of Chinese brands reached USD 1.81 trillion, an increase of 2.84% over 2024, securing second place globally.

In addition, the GII highlighted that the role of China's high-tech exports in global value chains continues to strengthen, with outstanding performance particularly in artificial intelligence, semiconductors, and green technologies.(Translated from CNIPA Website Chinese Version)