Recently, relevant institutions announced the list of 2018 China's urban innovation competitiveness. It is reported that this list is depended on three dimensions to comprehensively measure the innovation competitiveness of each city: the investment of innovation (R&D expenditure); the results of innovation, namely the number of patents (including annual application volume, authorization amount, and PCT, etc.); and the entities of innovation (high-tech enterprise).

This ranking is compiled by weighting the above three dimensions. In the end, 25 mainland cities were selected for this list.

In the list, Beijing ranked the first, the second is Shenzhen, and the third is Shanghai. On the whole, the Guangdong, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang and other main economic provinces are more selected cities, and nine national central cities, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Xi'an, Chengdu, Tianjin, Wuhan, Chongqing, and Zhengzhou were selected.

As the first place, the performance of Beijing was the most prominent in this selection. In 2017, R&D expenditure reached 159.5 billion yuan, up 7.5% than last year, accounting for 5.7% of the regional GDP, ranking the highest in the country. As a national political center, cultural center, international communication center, and science and technology innovation center, Beijing has gathered many large state-owned enterprises, such as State Grid and PetroChina Co Ltd.. The total number of high-tech enterprises has also reached 20,197. There are more than 8,000 high-tech enterprises that only added in 2017, accounting for 43% of the total.

As the ranked second, the number of PCT applications in Shenzhen reached 20,500 in 2017, accounting for almost one-half of the national total. In 2017, Shenzhen's R&D investment exceeded 90 billion, accounting for 4.13% of GDP. The rapid development of Shenzhen makes "Made in China" no longer limited to the supply of raw materials. In any place in the world, seeing drones or electric buses, those may come from Shenzhen's Dajiang Science and Technology and BYD. Shenzhen innovation mainly comes from private enterprises, and the potential for innovation competitiveness is huge.

As an international metropolis, Shanghai's innovation competitiveness is also very strong. Its patent application volume was 131,746 in 2017, accounting for 9.53% of the total number of patent applications nationwide. The number of high-tech enterprises in Shanghai during the period of 2015-2017 reached 7,642, of which 3,247 were newly identified as high-tech enterprises in 2017. 

In addition to the above cities, other cities on the list  also cannot be ignored in terms of strength.

The strength of Xi'an is not to be underestimated. The R&D expenditure intensity is 4.82%, which is  higher than the provincial R&D expenditure intensity by 2.7%, and it is also higher than the national R&D expenditure intensity by 2.69%. The investment intensity of R&D expenditure in Wuhan and Hangzhou was 3.2% and 3.16%, respectively, which were 1.07% and 1.03% higher than the national R&D expenditure intensity.

Chengdu's GDP in 2017 accounted for 37.6% of Sichuan's GDP, and the number of patent applications reached 113,956, and the number of patents granted was 410,88, accounting for 9.78% of the total number of patents granted nationwide. In 2017, there were 2,437 high-tech enterprises, accounting for 68.24% of the total number of high-tech enterprises in Sichuan Province, and has 376 new enterprises than last year.

Wuhan's R&D expenditure in 2017 was 42.9 billion yuan, accounting for 3.2% of the Wuhan GDP.  In 2017, Wuhan's high-tech enterprises reached 2,827, an increase of 23%. The number of international patent (PCT) applications was 1,219, accounting for 2.54% of the national PCT.

The competition in Chinese cities will become a competition for innovation eventually. In addition to industry, talent, and capital, the reasonable innovation planning is becoming more and more important.