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China’s shift towards ‘organized research’: how can coordination and innovation co-exist?

Beijing’s reorganization of science is a broad, systemic effort to reshape how research is conducted, applied and evaluated nationwide.
By
  1. Shuangmiao Han

    1. Shuangmiao Han is an associate professor at the College of Education, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China.

  2. Jing Xie

    1. ing Xie is a lecturer at the School of Marxism Studies, Zhejiang University of Finance and Economics, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China.

Two scientists talk while standing in a room with a large piece of laboratory equipment

The world’s deepest and largest underground laboratory is 2,400 metres below the Jinping Mountains in southwest China. Credit: IMAGO/Shen Bohan/Alamy

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In the past two decades, China has made big advances in scientific research, and its rise to the top of the 2025 Nature Index tables highlights this shift (see go.nature.com/45vf99n). According to these metrics, which track and fairly compare each country’s contributions to research articles in top journals, China has surpassed the United States in producing high-quality natural-sciences research (see ‘High-impact research’).

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Nature 643, 631-634 (2025)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-025-02199-1

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Competing Interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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