China in 2016: 12 invention patents per 10,000 people by 2020. It reached 15.8
State Council of ChinaDecember 2016 · 13th Five-Year Plan for IP Protection and Use (2016–2020)
«Invention patents in force per 10,000 people (units): 6.3 [2015] → 12 [2020], increase 5.7, indicative target»
In 2020 there were 15.8 invention patents in force per 10,000 people against a target of 12; the target was passed in 2019 (13.3).
The goal was passed a year early: 13.3 in 2019. In 2015, before the plan, it was 6.3.
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In its five-year plan for intellectual property China’s State Council set a goal of almost twice as many invention patents in force per person. Here is how many there actually were.
First the words: who said it, when and where, verbatim (translations are ours). Answer Yes or No, or just open the answer: the stamp is the outcome, below it what came of it. On the chart the dark line is the fact year by year up to the deadline, the pale one after it; the blue dashed line is the promised number from the year of the words to the deadline, the light band the time the promise gave; the ring on the line is when it was said, the ring in the stamp’s colour the fact in the deadline year, beside it how far it landed from the goal. The numbers on the right are the scale.
- State Council of China, 13th Five-Year Plan for IP Protection and Use (2016–2020) quote
«每万人口发明专利拥有量（件） 6.3 12 5.7 预期性» — Invention patents in force per 10,000 people (units): 6.3 [2015] → 12 [2020], increase 5.7, indicative target
- What happened exceeded
In 2020 there were 15.8 invention patents in force per 10,000 people against a target of 12; the target was passed in 2019 (13.3).
Goal: the 13th Five-Year Plan for the Protection and Use of Intellectual Property (2016–2020), State Council, December 2016. Fact: National Bureau of Statistics of China, statistical communiqués on economic and social development 2015–2020. Outcome: «came true» — the promised number reached by the deadline («about» within 5%), an event happened before the end of the year promised; «exceeded» — with room to spare; «nearly» — short by no more than 10%; «late» — reached, but after the deadline; «did not come true» — not reached; «came true, then undone» — reached, then reversed. The deadline is the end of the year named.
The indicator counts patents, not their quality or use. From 2021 China counts only «high-value» patents. The 2020 value is marked provisional in the communiqué.
A question for this picture
What does a patent count say about a country’s science when the government sets a target for it?