追踪研发领导力：随着中国的崛起，美国的优势正在缩小

TRELYSA LONG|FEBRUARY 2026 Maintaining R&D leadership in advanced industries is critical to U.S. economic competitivenessand national power. But on a size- and wage-adjusted basis, China is rapidly gaining ground. KEY TAKEAWAYS In 2024, U.S. firms in nine advanced sectors invested $675 billion in R&D, 52 percentof the global total. Chinese firms invested $165 billion, 13 percent of the global total. But China has been catching up rapidly over the last decade. On a size-adjusted basis,Chinese firms are already outpacing U.S. firms’ R&D investments in four of the nine Meanwhile, advanced industries’ investment in R&D in the rest of the world appears tohave largely stagnated. We appear to be moving to a bipolar world in which the United China has a distinct advantage in that research costs less there than it does in the UnitedStates. In fact, on a wage-adjusted basis, China’s R&D investments in advanced Excluding software and biopharmaceuticals, Chinese firms’ wage-adjusted R&D across To avoid losing global market share in advanced industries critical to U.S. national power,Congress should expand programs that fund joint industry-university research and triple National Power Industry Series This report is part of a series on China’s predatory industrial strategies; their impact on U.S.technological leadership; and how to avoid losing U.S. and allied capabilities in advanced CONTENTS Key Takeaways .......................................................................................................1Introduction...........................................................................................................2All Advanced Sectors ...............................................................................................4Software and Computer Services............................................................................... 12Technology Hardware and Equipment......................................................................... 14General Industrials ................................................................................................ 16Industrial Engineering ............................................................................................ 18Electronics and Electrical Equipment......................................................................... 20Automobiles and Parts............................................................................................ 22Aerospace and Defense........................................................................................... 24 INTRODUCTION Advanced, traded-sector industries power the U.S. economy’s global competitiveness.1A keyindicator of strength in these industries is the amount firms invest in research and development(R&D) to produce new innovations. As China vigorously challenges the United States for global This report uses the EU R&D Industrial Scoreboard, which tracks the R&D investments (in euros)of the world’s top R&D investors, covering about 90 percent of the world’s private sector R&Dinvestments, to compare U.S.- and Chinese-headquartered firms’ R&D investments in nineadvanced sectors.3These nine sectors are aerospace and defense, electronic and electricalequipment, general industrials, industrial engineering, pharmaceutical and biotechnology,software and computer services, technology and hardware equipment, alternative energy, and Each section of the report examines U.S. and Chinese private-sector R&D in those sectors on asize-adjusted basis—first relative to the size of their respective economies, then as proportions ofglobal R&D in each sector or group of sectors, and finally using an industrial concentration ratio The data shows that while U.S. firms’ investment in R&D is growing, China is catching up. On asize-adjusted basis, U.S. firms’ R&D investments in eight of nine advanced sectors in 2014 exceeded that of Chinese firms.4But by 2024, U.S. firms had lost their lead in four of the ninesectors, while China had closed the gap in the rest.5The United States is likely to lose globalR&D investment market shares in the other five sectors as Chinese companies expand R&Dinvestment with government support. In addition, because they benefit from extensive intellectual property theft and forced technology transfers, Chinese firms do not have to invest asmuch in R&D as American firms do to get the same innovation results.6Think of China as a freerider, living on the R&D investments of U.S. and other foreign firms. But in addition to that free-riding strategy and the impact of having R&D workers with lower salaries, Chinese firms also areinvesting more in their own in-house capabilities. Indeed, when adjusting for R&D workers’ While U.S. firms’ investment in R&D is growing, China is catching up. On a size-adjusted basis, U.S.firms’ R&D investments in eight of nine advanced sectors in 2014 exceeded that of Chinese firms. Meanwhile, the rest of the world’s advanced-sector firms’ R&D inve