From the Tianwen-2 mission’s journey among the stars to the start of major hydropower works, and from quantum computing records to progress in indigenous chips, AI large models and drone delivery, China’s innovation momentum continues to surge.

WIPO recently released the Global Innovation Index 2026 Report. China ranked 10th worldwide, remaining among the global Top 10 for a second consecutive year. China leads the 35 upper-middle-income economies, ranks first worldwide on seven sub-indicators, and shows strong innovation outputs—reflecting results from innovation-driven development and building a strong IP nation.

WIPO Chief Economist Carsten Fink noted that China’s sustained investment in science and technology gives reason for optimism, and that China can be expected to keep performing strongly on the GII while turning innovation strengths into growth and development opportunities.

Remaining in the Top 10 reflects breaking through an innovation “ceiling.” Amid unprecedented AI activity and demand for computing power, Alibaba Cloud pioneered “logical containers,” including elastic scaling based on data containers for large-scale intelligent scheduling of computing resources. The related invention patent (ZL201610144243.1) won a China Patent Gold Award. Alibaba Cloud IP experts report more than 10,000 patents worldwide across cloud computing, AI, large models and chips.

High-value invention patents underpin enterprise innovation. The GII notes bottlenecks that upper-middle-income economies face in catching up with high-income peers. As the only upper-middle-income economy in the Top 10, China has relied on rising R&D spending, corporate R&D, high-tech manufacturing and IP use to break that ceiling, with long-standing strengths in innovation outputs.

Source：China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA)；2026-10-21；http://www.cnipa.gov.cn/art/2026/10/21/art_55_208668.html