Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in China accounted for 76 percent of the development of patent-intensive products, with their total annual output surpassing 310 billion yuan (approximately 42.5 billion U.S. dollars) in 2024, according to the data released by China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) on Monday.
By November this year, 73.5 percent of valid invention patents in China were attributed to enterprises, marking a 2.5 percentage-point increase from the previous year.
This data highlights the active role of SMEs in patent innovation, supported by stronger protection and improved application capabilities. In 2024, the industrialization rate of valid invention patents for SMEs reached 55.1 percent, up by 3.6 percentage points from last year.
China has been promoting Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)-pledged financing to help SMEs develop patent-intensive products, unlocking the value of their intellectual property.
In the first three quarters of this year, inclusive lending programs supported 26,000 SMEs, covering 80 percent of all benefiting companies.
Additionally, the number of national public service stations for IP information reached 474, with coverage of comprehensive prefecture-level institutions exceeding 50 percent. These public service institutions have provided more than 3 million services to SMEs.
China’s SMEs contribute 76 pct to patent-intensive products in 2024
China is continuing to accelerate its green energy transition while meeting the considerable power demand, with renewable energy representing over 80 percent of the country's new installed power generation capacity.
The latest data showed that China's newly installed capacity for new energy power generation reached 258 million kilowatts from January to November, accounting for 81.5 percent of the total newly installed power generation capacity.
Experts say the renewable energy expansion can be partly attributed to China's efforts to accelerate the construction of new energy bases in its western areas to promote the distribution of new energy production in the more populous central and eastern parts of the country.
"For the next step, China's new energy power generation will be both centralized and distributed. It will also be land-based and sea-based. The generated power will be transmitted to other regions and consumed locally. We will continue promoting the construction of the wind and solar power generation bases in the sandy areas, rocky areas and deserts in the shelterbelt program in the northeast, north, and northwest regions of China. We will push forward the development of the water, wind, and solar power generation bases in southwestern China and the offshore wind power generation bases in eastern China. We will work to strengthen coordination in an effort to comprehensively diversify the supply of new energy," said Rao Jianye, director of the Clean Energy Research Institute under the China Electric Power Planning and Engineering Institute.
China is also improving its new power system, keeping enhancing the system's capability for receiving and distributing new energy so as to support the country's energy transition.
As China races to construct more new energy storage projects like photothermal energy storage projects and compressed-air energy storage projects, so far, the country's new energy storage has a capacity of over 60 million kilowatts, marking a significant achievement in maintaining the stable operation of the country's power system.
By the end of July, China's total installed capacity of wind and solar power had exceeded 1.2 billion kilowatts, more than doubling the 2020 level and achieving the 2030 target six years ahead of schedule.
New energy represents over 80 pct of China's new installed power generation capacity
