On March 5, 2026, Premier Li Qiang delivered the Government Work Report to the Fourth Session of the 14th National People’s Congress (part of the ‘Two Sessions’), reviewing 2025 and outlining the policy direction for China in 2026. China has made excerpts from the Work Report available online (李强作的政府工作报告（摘登)), which included several references to intellectual property. The Report noted that total R&D expenditure continued growing at an average annual rate of 10%, the number of high-value invention patents per 10,000 people reaching 16, a number of major key core technologies were mastered, the manufacturing value added remaining the world’s largest for 16 consecutive years, and the resilience and security of industrial and supply chains are steadily improving.
Excerpts mentioning intellectual property follow. The original text is available here (Chinese only).
Breakthroughs were achieved in science and technology and industrial innovation, with total R&D expenditure growing at an average annual rate of 10%. The number of high-value invention patents per 10,000 people reached 16. A number of major key core technologies were mastered, and the added value of the manufacturing sector remained the world’s largest for 16 consecutive years. The resilience and security of the industrial and supply chains steadily improved.
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We will smooth the monetary policy transmission mechanism, fully leverage the role of intangible assets such as data and intellectual property rights, strengthen support measures such as performance evaluation, financing guarantees, and risk compensation, and guide financial institutions to increase their support for key areas such as expanding domestic demand, technological innovation, and small and micro enterprises.
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We will develop production-oriented services such as finance, modern logistics, intellectual property, and inspection and testing.
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We will promote the deep integration of technological and industrial innovation. Build international science and technology innovation centers in Beijing (Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region), Shanghai (Yangtze River Delta region), and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, creating world-class sources of scientific and technological innovation. Strengthen the leading role of enterprises in innovation, support leading technology companies in forming innovation consortia, and increase the proportion of enterprises undertaking major national science and technology projects. We will strengthen the construction of pilot-scale testing platforms, improve the intellectual property protection system in emerging fields, and accelerate the efficient transformation and application of major scientific and technological achievements. We will strengthen financial services across the entire chain and lifecycle of scientific and technological innovation, and implement a regular “green channel” mechanism for listing, financing, mergers and acquisitions for technology-based enterprises in key core technology fields, using science and technology finance to support innovation and creation.
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We will further advance the construction of a unified national market . We will formulate regulations for the construction of a unified national market. We will improve statistical, fiscal, and performance evaluation systems, regulate local government economic promotion activities, issue lists of encouraged and prohibited items for local government investment attraction, and standardize tax incentives and fiscal subsidies. We will deepen the reform of the bidding and tendering system. We will strengthen anti-monopoly and anti-unfair competition efforts, reinforce the rigid constraints of fair competition review , and comprehensively utilize capacity regulation, standard setting, price enforcement, and quality supervision to thoroughly address “involutionary” competition and create a sound market ecosystem. We will deepen the pilot reform of the comprehensive market-oriented allocation of factors of production, including more eligible regions in the pilot program. We will steadily advance the price reform of public utilities and public services.
Regarding science and technology more generally, the Report stated:
Over the past year, China’s development has moved towards new and higher levels, demonstrating vigorous vitality. New-type productivity has steadily developed, and scientific and technological innovation has yielded fruitful results. Research and application in artificial intelligence, biomedicine, robotics, and quantum technology are among the world’s leading fields. New breakthroughs have been achieved in independent chip research and development. Tianwen-2 embarked on its “star-chasing” journey. The large-scale application of the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System has expanded comprehensively. Construction of the Yaxia Hydropower Project has commenced. The first domestically built electromagnetic catapult-equipped aircraft carrier, the Fujian, has officially entered service. Domestically produced large-scale models are leading the global open-source ecosystem. The industrial structure has continued to optimize. The added value of high-tech manufacturing and equipment manufacturing increased by 9.4% and 9.2% respectively. The output of industrial robots and integrated circuits increased by 28% and 10.9% respectively. The annual output of new energy vehicles exceeded 16 million units, and the number of electric vehicle charging facilities surpassed 20 million. Energy consumption per unit of GDP decreased by 5.1%, and the quality of the ecological environment continued to improve.
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We comprehensively advanced the strategic deployment of building a strong nation in science and technology, strengthened the construction of national strategic scientific and technological forces, improved the regional science and technology innovation system, and intensified the systematic layout of basic and frontier fields and the tackling of key core technologies. The R&D intensity of the whole society reached 2.8%, and the transaction volume of technology contracts increased by 10.8%. The integration of scientific and technological innovation and industrial innovation accelerated, the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries deepened, emerging and future industries flourished, and the modern service industry maintained rapid growth. We focused on key areas and formulated or revised 583 national standards. We continued to promote the digital transformation of manufacturing and the “Artificial Intelligence+” action, with industry applications accelerating and new intelligent terminals constantly emerging. The potential of data elements was rapidly released, and the added value of the core industries of the digital economy increased to over 10.5% of GDP.
