There now are about 20 world-recognized innovative countries, including the USA, Japan, Finland and South Korea. What those countries have in common is that their total investments in research and development account for more than 2 percent of Gross Domestic Product.

That is a measurement where China has spent a lot of effort catching up. China's R&D investment to GDP ratio in 2005 was still at 1.2 percent, much lower than the world average of 1.6 percent. That ratio came in at 2.1 percent in 2015 thanks to a range of development measures implemented during China's eleventh- and twelfth five-year plans.

That ratio is expected to improve to 2.5 percent during China's 13th five-year plan period. The government predicts that by 2020, there will be 12 patents per million people.