{
  "id": 8074580,
  "title": "US sanctions boost China’s science-driven innovation by over 70%, study finds",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/17/us-sanctions-boost-chinas-science-driven-innovation-by-over-70-study",
  "topic": "business",
  "section": "Business",
  "published": "2026-09-17T18:00:08.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Reuters Business via SCMP",
    "slug": "reuters-business-via-scmp",
    "url": "https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3367792/us-sanctions-boost-chinas-science-driven-innovation-over-70-study-finds"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "A new study reveals that US sanctions against Chinese companies have led to a substantial 72 percent increase in scientific literature citations in their patent applications over the past 12 years. The United States expanded its Entity List to protect its national security and maintain technological supremacy, but Chinese firms have countered these restrictions by relying on open-source research. This study, published in the peer-reviewed journal Science, indicates that these trade sanctions have unintentionally catalyzed Chinese firms' internal capability development and strategic shifts. The researchers found that sanctioned Chinese companies added more than double the number of patents citing domestic and foreign science compared to US-origin patents, while also producing a larger number of scientific publications. The study authors noted that while sanctions hinder the targeted firms' short-term operations, they may also drive strategic changes that could potentially result in the emergence of separate technological systems competing with the existing global innovation ecosystem. Despite the US Patent and Trademark Office's data showing that Chinese firms still lag behind US counterparts in scientific breadth and depth, China's dominance in rare earth mining and processing has allowed it to leverage this advantage as a counterbalance to US trade restrictions. Researchers from Shenzhen University, Tsinghua University, and the University of Hong Kong analyzed a dataset of Chinese patents filed between 2010 and 2022 to understand how trade controls affect corporate strategy. They found that sanctioned Chinese companies were increasingly engaging with scientific literature, both as users and creators of scientific knowledge. The findings suggest that US trade restrictions have inadvertently accelerated China's technological self-reliance, pushing firms to reinvent essential principles behind technologies by reading academic research and incorporating this knowledge into their innovations.",
  "summary": "Sanctioned Chinese companies are increasingly turning to open-source research to innovate and reverse-engineer restricted foreign technology, with a 72 per cent surge in scientific literature citations in their patent applications, according to a new study. While the United States said it expanded its Entity List to safeguard national security and preserve its technological edge, an analysis of…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 2,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "South China Morning Post",
        "title": "US sanctions boost China’s science-driven innovation by over 70%, study finds",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/17/us-sanctions-boost-chinas-science-driven-innovation-by-over-70-study-8075384",
        "published": "2026-09-17T18:00:08.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}