2026-08-12
53 分钟Daily news and analysis.
We keep you informed and inspired.
This is World Today.
China surpasses the United States in research and development spending.
China's inbound tourism showed strong growth in the first half of the year.
And Pakistan says the United States and Iran are close to some arrangement on peace.
Hello and welcome to World Today.
I'm Do Hongyu in Beijing.
To listen to this episode again or to catch up on previous episodes,
you can download our podcast by searching World Today.
Our first story.
Reports show that China has overtaken the United States in total research
and development spending by companies and universities.
The Science and Technology Indicators 2026, released by Japan's National Institute of Science and Technology Policy,
indicates that China's R&D spending reached about US$650 billion in 2024. That was an over 13% increase
from the previous year, putting China ahead of the US, which spent less than US$600 billion.
Meanwhile, a recent report by the U.S.-based Rhodium Group compared the AI ecosystems of the two countries.
It found China has advantages in areas including critical raw materials, energy, and AI models.
For more, we're joined by Yao Shujie, Chiang Kung Professor of Economics at Chongqing University.
Thank you very much for joining us, Professor Yao.