With companies and start-ups across the country growing at an increasing rate, it's no wonder that China's input into research and development, saw an annual growth of 11 percent over the past five years.

Last year, input was valued at 1-point-7-5 trillion yuan, roughly 280 billion US dollars. This ranks China just behind the US, with a year-on-year increase of nearly 12 percent. Chinese government-affiliated research institutes and universities, spent 38 billion and 18 billion US dollars respectively, while enterprises invested the most in R&D. And according to a government work report, contributions by the field of science and technology to economic growth last year, grew from 52 to 57 percent.