China is producing twice as many research papers as the US on chip design and fabrication, laying the foundation for a possible leadership role in next-generation semiconductor technology, according to a US think tank.
While China is behind in advanced semiconductors and is restricted from buying high-end chipmaking tools such as the extreme ultraviolet lithography system developed by Dutch firm ASML, Chinese scholars published a total of 160,852 chip-related papers from 2018 to 2023, more than the next three ranked countries combined, according to the Emerging Technology Observatory (ETO) at Georgetown University.
The US was in second place with 71,688 articles, less than half of China's output, followed by India and Japan, according to the report released on Monday. The ETO found that Chinese institutions accounted for nine spots in the top-10 producers of chip articles between 2018 and 2023, and eight spots in the category of highly cited publications. The Chinese Academy of Sciences was the country's leading publisher of all chip design and fabrication research, as well as the most cited in the research category.
Employees inspect semiconductor chips at a factory in Binzhou, in eastern China's Shandong province, January 15, 2025. Photo: AFP alt=Employees inspect semiconductor chips at a factory in Binzhou, in eastern China's Shandong province, January 15, 2025. Photo: AFP>
In research papers that were cited the most by peers, 23,520 publications in the chip design and fabrication field featured authors affiliated with Chinese institutions, compared to 22 per cent with US authors and 17 per cent with European authors.
Around 475,000 chip design and fabrication-related articles were published globally between 2018 and 2023, according to the ETO report, which reviews public research papers with English-language abstracts.
China's lead in chip research comes amid the country's push for self-reliance in the semiconductor industry to counter sanctions imposed by Washington over national security concerns. China's lead in the volume of research papers has come in tandem with the country's rapid progress in semiconductor self-sufficiency.
A research note by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank, noted on Monday that China "is building massive data centres, expanding its power sector, and developing domestic AI chips to reduce Western dependence" on top of the success of DeepSeek.
China has also welcomed a wave of scientists returning to the country to work in academia in the field of semiconductors, including Tsinghua University chip expert Sun Nan and more recently ex-Apple engineer Wang Huanyu, who joined the Huazhong University of Science and Technology.
The world's two biggest economies have been engaged in a tech war in recent years, with tensions escalating after the Biden administration tightened export restrictions in 2022, targeting the mainland's semiconductor supply chain.
Further chip restrictions announced in December imposed curbs on 24 types of chipmaking equipment and three categories of software essential for integrated-circuit development. Washington also added 140 Chinese semiconductor enterprises to its so-called Entity List, which generally bars them from doing business with US companies.
This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages.
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While China is behind in advanced semiconductors and is restricted from buying high-end chipmaking tools such as the extreme ultraviolet lithography system developed by Dutch firm ASML, Chinese scholars published a total of 160,852 chip-related papers from 2018 to 2023, more than the next three ranked countries combined, according to the Emerging Technology Observatory (ETO) at Georgetown University.
The US was in second place with 71,688 articles, less than half of China's output, followed by India and Japan, according to the report released on Monday. The ETO found that Chinese institutions accounted for nine spots in the top-10 producers of chip articles between 2018 and 2023, and eight spots in the category of highly cited publications. The Chinese Academy of Sciences was the country's leading publisher of all chip design and fabrication research, as well as the most cited in the research category.
Employees inspect semiconductor chips at a factory in Binzhou, in eastern China's Shandong province, January 15, 2025. Photo: AFP alt=Employees inspect semiconductor chips at a factory in Binzhou, in eastern China's Shandong province, January 15, 2025. Photo: AFP>
In research papers that were cited the most by peers, 23,520 publications in the chip design and fabrication field featured authors affiliated with Chinese institutions, compared to 22 per cent with US authors and 17 per cent with European authors.
Around 475,000 chip design and fabrication-related articles were published globally between 2018 and 2023, according to the ETO report, which reviews public research papers with English-language abstracts.
China's lead in chip research comes amid the country's push for self-reliance in the semiconductor industry to counter sanctions imposed by Washington over national security concerns. China's lead in the volume of research papers has come in tandem with the country's rapid progress in semiconductor self-sufficiency.
A research note by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank, noted on Monday that China "is building massive data centres, expanding its power sector, and developing domestic AI chips to reduce Western dependence" on top of the success of DeepSeek.
China has also welcomed a wave of scientists returning to the country to work in academia in the field of semiconductors, including Tsinghua University chip expert Sun Nan and more recently ex-Apple engineer Wang Huanyu, who joined the Huazhong University of Science and Technology.
The world's two biggest economies have been engaged in a tech war in recent years, with tensions escalating after the Biden administration tightened export restrictions in 2022, targeting the mainland's semiconductor supply chain.
Further chip restrictions announced in December imposed curbs on 24 types of chipmaking equipment and three categories of software essential for integrated-circuit development. Washington also added 140 Chinese semiconductor enterprises to its so-called Entity List, which generally bars them from doing business with US companies.
This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages.
Tech war: China leads US in quantity, quality of semiconductor research, report finds
China is producing twice as many research papers as the US on chip design and fabrication, laying the foundation for a possible leadership role in next-generation semiconductor technology, according to a US think tank. While China is behind in advanced semiconductors and is restricted from...
