China Ranks First Worldwide in AI Publications
China has surged to the forefront of AI research despite U.S. chip export controls. Whereas Chinese scholars published just 671 AI papers in 2000, they produced 23,695 in 2024—outpacing the combined output of the U.S. (6,378), the U.K. (2,747), and the EU (10,055). That year, China also filed 35,423 AI-related patents versus 2,678 from the U.S., U.K., Canada, Japan, and South Korea combined. With around 30,000 AI researchers—three times the U.S. cohort—and a younger, increasingly independent research base, China’s capacity for AI innovation is rapidly expanding.