China Innovation Index up 5.3%

The China Innovation Index, a barometer of the country's innovation capability, rose steadily in 2024. The index increased by 5.3 percent from the 2023 level to 174.2 last year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. The innovation environment continued to improve, featuring increasing innovation investment, rapidly growing innovation output and strengthening driving forces for the economy, the NBS said. The country's spending on basic research climbed 10.7 percent from a year earlier to 250.09 billion yuan ($35.3 billion) in 2024, maintaining a rapid, double-digit growth streak.

State firms maintain stable revenue

China's State-owned and State-controlled enterprises displayed generally stable performance in the first nine months of 2025. Their total operating revenue came in at nearly 61.33 trillion yuan ($8.66 trillion) during the January-September period, up 0.9 percent year-on-year, according to data from the Ministry of Finance.