BEIJING, Jan. 23 (Xinhua) -- China's total expenditure on research and development (R&D) exceeded 3.6 trillion yuan (about 500 billion U.S. dollars) last year, up 8.3 percent year on year, the National Bureau of Statistics said Thursday.
The R&D spending accounted for 2.68 percent of the country's gross domestic product, up 0.1 percentage points from 2023. ■
