China’s Premier Li Keqiang told the World Economic Forum in Tianjin on 10 September that China will step up science and technology innovation and improve the technological sophistication, quality and brand awareness of Chinese industry. This comment reflects the Chinese government’s continuing emphasis on technological innovation, including R&D spending which is now around 42% of the US level. But our research on innovation by companies in China shows that there are at least eight types of innovation, and that China’s success to date has been built much more on non-technology types of innovation .
