Booming or emerging? China's technological capability and international collaboration in patent activities

China's economy and technology have experienced astounding growth in the last two decades. The OECD 2005 reports show that China has overtaken the USA to become the world's largest exporter of information and communications technology goods. In order to assess the progress China has made in technology development, this study examines the inventive activities in China and the pattern of international collaborations between China and other major industrialized countries or regions. This study analyzes the patent data from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) focusing on joint patent application between China and the eight most inventive OECD countries and two Asian economic entities (South Korea and Taiwan). The results reveal increasing collaborations in inventive activities between China and other major inventive countries over the past decade, and suggest that China's technology capability may have begun to boom along with its fast economic growth.