China granted nearly one million invention patents in 2025, pushing its total past 5 million and making it the first country to reach the milestone, officials said.
Rui Wenbiao, deputy commissioner of the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA), announced the figure at an April 23 news conference, saying the country continues to expand its intellectual property capacity across emerging technologies.
He said China has secured key patents in fields including quantum technology, biomanufacturing, brain-computer interfaces, and 6G communications, according to China Daily.
Patent growth has accelerated sharply. It took China 31 years to reach its first one million valid invention patents domestically, but only about 19 months to expand from that level to five million, Global Times reported, citing a CNIPA report released in February.
CNIPA data also indicated steady progress in high-value invention patents during China’s 14th Five-Year Plan period from 2021 to 2025. By the end of 2025, the country held 2.292 million high-value patents.
China accounts for about 60% of global AI patents. Robot-related patents make up roughly two-thirds of global filings, while international patent filings under the Patent Cooperation Treaty in green and low-carbon technologies have ranked first globally for several years.
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People watch a humanoid robot performs a task at a exhibition in China in March 2026. Photo from X |
According to the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Global Innovation Index 2025, China rose to 10th place, entering the global top 10 for the first time.
The country hosts 24 of the world’s top 100 science and technology innovation clusters, with the Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou cluster ranked first globally, Rui said.
Wang Peng, an associate research fellow at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, told Global Times that the figures reflect improving quality in China’s intellectual property output and a more optimized patent structure.
He added that stronger patent creation has supported China’s push for greater scientific and technological self-reliance.
