China emerges as new global technology superpower, surpassing US in latest research rankings: Nature Index report

On Tuesday (June 18), Springer Nature, the renowned British publisher of the world's most authoritative scientific journal 'Nature,' released a research report stating that China is becoming the newest global technology superpower.

The group released the famous Nature Index Research Leaders 2024, which measures each country's latest level of technological development.

China's performance was exceptionally outstanding, eye-catching, and highly surprising in this year's rankings.

Firstly, in the overall ranking of technological development, the Chinese Academy of Sciences ranked first with an absolute advantage.

The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) — the world's largest scientific organization, comprising more than 100 institutes across China — is peerless in its scale, reflected in its Share. This metric measures the contribution of countries, territories, and institutions to papers in the Nature Index database. At 2,243.22, CAS’s Share for the 2023 calendar year is almost double that of Harvard University (1,143.43), in second place.

Germany's renowned Max Planck Institute was third, and the French National Center for Scientific Research was seventh. The remaining top 10 research institutions are all from China.

Secondly, regarding universities' overall technological development level, Harvard University is undisputedly number one. However, shockingly, according to various technology indicators, the other 9 universities in the top 10 are all from China.

Thirdly, in terms of the number of papers published in top international science and technology journals and the contribution of these journals to technology, the global top 5 are China, the U.S., Germany, the UK, and Japan.

Fourthly, regarding the development level of specific disciplines globally, especially the critical fields of life sciences, chemistry, earth and environmental sciences, health sciences, and physical sciences, China and the U.S. are in intense competition.

According to scientific statistical methods, China now leads the world in chemistry, earth and environmental sciences, and physical sciences with incomparable advantages.

The U.S. still maintains a strong advantage in life sciences and health sciences, ranking first. However, the gap between China's development is getting smaller and smaller.

"The fact that leading institutions outside China are struggling to keep their position in the Nature Index Research Leaders tables shows how the capacity of Chinese research institutions to produce high-quality science is moving from strength to strength, The question going into next year will be whether these institutions can continue to improve, and what that will mean for their peers around the world," these are the writer left at the end of Nature Index data insights article.