What Europe Can Learn from China’s Critical-Tech Innovation Push
China is quickly closing the technology gap with the US as Europe faces challenges like slow replication and a fragmented research environment. This brief explores China's swift progress in frontier innovation fields such as artificial intelligence, semiconductors, and quantum computing, highlighting key companies behind these advances.
Global Leadership in Frontier Technologies
- The United States maintains overall leadership in artificial intelligence, semiconductors, and quantum computing.
- China is narrowing the gap rapidly, particularly excelling in semiconductor fabrication, AI video and audio processing, and aerial vision technologies.
- China’s development is slowest in quantum computing, where it lags behind the US.
- The European Union significantly trails both the US and China in patent breakthroughs, though it performs relatively better in quantum computing.
Speed of Innovation Diffusion
Chinese and US innovators are far quicker than Europeans to replicate novel patents from other countries. Europeans take more than twice as long to adopt breakthroughs in AI, semiconductors, or quantum technologies.
“That Chinese replication happens nearly as rapidly as US replication, even in areas subject to strict export controls, signals China’s rapidly advancing innovation capabilities in critical technologies.”
Patent Filings and Company Diversity
China stands out due to the wide variety of companies and institutions filing novel patents, contrasting with the US market where such breakthroughs are mainly concentrated among a few big-tech corporations.
Author’s summary: China’s rapid, diverse innovation ecosystem accelerates technological progress, outpacing Europe’s slow adoption and fragmented research in critical tech fields.