China
In 2018, GDP in China grew 6.6% to CNY 90,030.0 billion ($13,392.5 billion). Science and technology R&D expenditures jumped 11.6% to CNY 1,965.7 billion ($292.4 billion), representing 2.18% of the nation’s GDP. Of the total figure, CNY 111.8 billion ($16.6 billion) was allocated to basic research programs, with 1,052 projects being conducted under China’s key R&D program. Additionally, 563 research projects were organized under the national R&D program in 2018, and 44,504 projects were financed by the National Natural Science Foundation.
By year-end 2018, 501 state labs, 132 national engineering research centers, 217 national engineering labs and 1,480 national enterprise technical centers were fully operational. Twenty-one subfunds were established by the National Fund for Technology Transfer and Commercialization, totaling CNY 31.3 billion ($4.7 billion). Last year, 412,000 technology transfer contracts were signed, which reflected a value of CNY 1,769.7 billion ($263.3 billion), a 31.8% increase.
Also at the end of 2018, 791 national quality inspection centers had been established. A total of 484 product quality and management system and service certification agencies were created, and 2,668 national standards were either developed or revised.
Total Chinese energy consumption in 2018 reached 4.64 billion tons of standard coal equivalent, a rise of 3.3%. Coal consumption in general rose 1.0%, accounting for 59% of total energy consumption, while crude oil and natural gas grew 6.5% and 17.7%, respectively. Electric power usage increased 8.5%.