China will Overtake Japan in R&D Spending

China will surpass Japan in R & D spending this year to become the number two country world in that department…behind the U.S.

The U.S. spends about $330 billion. China will spend $136 billion. Japan, with one-tenth the population of China will spend $130 billion.

China's R & D spending has grown from $17 billion in 1995 to $94 billion in 2004 to the current amount of $136 billion.

During the same period China's researchers have grown in number to 926,000, also second to the U.S.'s 1.53 million.

With all the money and human resources that China is pouring into R & D, it is just a matter of time before the country becomes even more serious about intellectural property.

Nobody wants to spend so much money and let someone else walk away with it. Not even China.

What do you think?