China ramps up efforts to woo global R&D centers
By Wang Keju chinadaily.com.cn Updated: Apr 17, 2026
China will step up efforts to attract multinational corporations to establish research and development operations in the country, leveraging its comprehensive industrial system, highly skilled workforce and vast application scenarios to help global partners tap into the nation's green, digital and intelligent transformation, the Ministry of Commerce said on Thursday.
"Foreign-funded R&D centers have become an integral part of China's innovation ecosystem, with many multinational corporations upgrading their manufacturing bases in the country into strategic hubs for innovation," He Yadong, a spokesman for the ministry, told a news conference.
Data released by the ministry highlights the accelerating trend. Foreign direct investment in China's scientific research and technical services sector reached nearly one-fifth of total utilized foreign investment in 2025, marking the seventh consecutive year of steady growth and a 3.8-fold increase from 2018.
Last year alone, 14,000 newly established foreign-invested enterprises were set up in the sector, a year-on-year increase of 27.2 percent.
This is attributed to China's policy measures to encourage this shift, He said, noting that a revised version of the encouraged industry catalog for foreign investments took effect on Feb 1, adding areas such as novel drug development and technology R&D.
In addition, the country issued a notice earlier this year extending tariff and value-added tax exemptions on imports of research-related products by foreign R&D centers, He added.
Sean Stein, president of the US-China Business Council, said："Twenty-five years ago, no one came to China to do R&D. Now what I'm seeing is that the best companies are coming and doing some of their most important R&D."
"It's not the China market anymore — it's the China platform," Stein said. "That platform includes consumers, the business-to-business market, partnerships with Chinese firms, R&D, and supply chain resilience. All of those are part of it, and that's only becoming more important."
According to Stein, no one comes to China for low wages anymore. They come for the highly qualified workforce and the ability to scale.
