China Technology Monitor 2026
China on its way to becoming the leading technology nation
One of the reasons why China is taking such an aggressive stance in the trade conflict with the US is the significant progress it has made in strategically relevant technologies in recent years. The transition from high-quality production to high-quality research and development is a relatively recent development in China, which first became apparent around 2015. Ten years later, in 2025, China is the leader in many cutting-edge technologies or ranks second behind the US.
EconSight first highlighted this development in its China 2025 analysis for the World Economic Forum 2025. We have now developed our EconSight China Technology Monitor, in which we will regularly track China’s development in relevant technologies in comparison with the US and the European Union.
The analysis is based on world-class patents in selected technologies. The identification of world-class patents is based on the EconSight Patent Score and shows the top 10% of patents per technology and country.
China ahead in green, industrial and AI technologies – less strong in electric mobility and still far behind in health technologies
China is leading the way in generative AI, smart grids, humanoid robots, smart factories, image analysis, digital agriculture and wind energy. The biggest jumps can be observed in smart grid, humanoid robot and digital twin technologies. In some cases, the number of world-class patents has quadrupled since 2020. In many cases, China’s growth is primarily at the expense of the US, while European countries have more or less maintained their much lower shares.
It is striking that China’s position in electric mobility and battery technologies is not yet so dominant. Japan continues to lead in these technologies, albeit with sharply declining shares. The United States continues to lead in autonomous driving.
The country comparison in health technologies is particularly interesting. China ranks third behind European countries and the United States in precision medicine and gene therapy. China lags even further behind in surgical robots, where the United States completely dominates the field with an 86% global share.
China Technology Monitor
The interactive chart shows the position of China and other selected countries in 25 future technologies. The position is the share of the respective country in the total number of world-class patents in the respective technology – the global share. For better readability, individual countries can be shown or hidden by clicking on the legend. The comparison with 2020 or with 2024 can also be shown or hidden. This shows the massive leap that China has made in many technologies in recent years and also the significant growth from 2024 to 2025.
