For the first time, China has overtaken the United States in terms of the total number of science publications, according to statistics compiled by the US National Science Foundation (NSF). ... China published more than 426,000 studies in 2016, or 18.6% of the total documented in Elsevier’s Scopus database. That compares with nearly 409,000 by the United States. India surpassed Japan, and the rest of the developing world continued its upward trend. ... The United States spent the most on research and development (R&D) — around US$500 billion in 2015, or 26% of the global total. China came in second, at roughly $400 billion.
Но, если учесть, что при использовании методики паритета покупательной способности доллар в КНР 2016 года стоил дороже (МВФ пересчитывал ВВП КНР в $11218 млрд. в номинале как $21286 млрд. в ППС), то Поднебесная и является крупнейшим вкладчиком денег в науку...