Chinese cities account for more than half of the world’s top 10 scientific research hubs, according to the latest Nature Index supplement, with Beijing retaining its position as the leading global science city – a title it has held since 2016. According to the “Nature Index 2025 Science Cities” supplement, the number of Chinese cities among the global Top 10 rose from five in 2023 to six in 2024. While Beijing tops the chart, Shanghai holds second place. The other Chinese cities on the list are Nanjing (fifth) in Jiangsu province, Guangzhou (sixth) in Guangdong province, Wuhan (eighth) in Hubei province and Hangzhou (10th) in Zhejiang province. The New York metropolitan area, the Boston metropolitan area, the San Francisco Bay Area and the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area in the United States, are also among the global top 10 scientific research hubs.
The supplement, compiled by an organization associated with international publisher Springer Nature, draws on the Nature Index open database, which tracks all contributions made by global research institutions to 145 high-quality natural-science and health-science journals. Shang Yanran, Deputy Chief Planner at the Tsinghua Tongheng Planning and Design Institute in Beijing, said the newly released supplement shows that China plays an important role in driving global scientific and technological innovation. “Innovation is highly concentrated geographically, with North America represented by Silicon Valley, Europe by London, East Asia by Tokyo, and Southeast Asia by Singapore. China has diversified the global innovation landscape, forming a structure centered on Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, with other key cities collaborating in innovation,” she said.
Chinese cities lead in three of the five major subjects evaluated by the index, namely chemistry, physical sciences, and earth and environmental sciences. Among these, Chinese cities have, for the first time, swept the Top 10 ranks in chemistry, and claimed six spots in each of the other two fields. Beijing ranks first in all three fields. In biological sciences, Western cities continue to lead, with New York and Boston holding the top two spots, and Beijing making it to third place. In health sciences, U.S. cities account for half of the Top 10 positions, while Beijing ranks sixth. In the overall rankings, Hangzhou, home to tech giants such as Alibaba and DeepSeek, advanced three spots since the 2023 Nature Index supplement was released to make it to the world’s Top 10 scientific research hubs in 2024. Last year, Hangzhou’s research and development (R&D) expenditure surpassed CNY85 billion, an increase of 8.3% from the previous year, according to local authorities. Wuhan, which ranked ninth in 2023, climbed a spot to eighth place in 2024. The city is now home to more than 16,600 high-tech enterprises, with the transaction value of technology contracts exceeding CNY260 billion last year.
In related news, China has overtaken the U.S. in medical research. “In 2023, China accounted for 40% of papers in the medical field, a share that actually rose to just over 50% in 2024,” Fred Fenter, Chief Executive Editor of the Switzerland-based publisher Frontiers, said. “In energy research, China is already the clear global leader, producing around 35% of all papers in the field – and with significant impact. There is no doubt that China is now the leader in scientific publishing and output. Other indicators, such as patents, further reinforce that China has surpassed the U.S. not only in volume but also in high-quality scientific production.” Frontiers also said China made significant contributions to three of the 10 emerging technologies: green nitrogen fixation, next-generation nuclear energy, and generative watermarking, a technology that places invisible markers into AI content to allow it to be traced back to its source.
China’s growing pipeline of novel drug candidates is expected to draw increased attention from global pharmaceutical companies and investors scouting for licensing opportunities, as the country’s clinical trial capacity has expanded to match those in the U.S. That assessment was made by Shanghai-based Helen Chen, Greater China Managing Partner at L.E.K. Consulting, one of the most respected analysts in China's life sciences industry. “There is increased interest from multinational corporations in conducting investigator-initiated trials for cell and gene therapies in China, given that they can have access to patient data more rapidly than in other markets,” Chen said. As of 2024, China’s clinical trial volumes matched 80% of those in the U.S. and exceeded the levels in Europe by 10%, according to a report by L.E.K. Consulting and PharmaDJ. The report, which polled 89 pharmaceutical and contract research organization leaders between August and September, showed China had 2,694 new clinical trials in 2024, up 13% from a year earlier.
Multinational companies accounted for 14.3% of those clinical trials in the country last year, representing a 7% compound annual growth rate since 2019, the South China Morning Post reports.
