China 2.0: Status and foresight of EU-China trade, investment, and technological race

As shown by first JRC China Flagship report, China's improvements and performance in high-tech sectors appear to originate from a combination of productivity-enhancing investments and technological developments while benefiting from sheltering foreign investment conditions. The second Flagship report – ‘China 2.0’ – adopts a holistic approach to analyse China's performance on international and capital markets as well as technological developments. Such an approach combines information on three pillars of analysis often found disconnected in the literature: economic, financial and trade statistics (1); innovation and patent data (2); energy and environmental policy (3). Furthermore, the second Flagship report encompasses all levels of (dis)aggregation, ranging from macro-country statistics to sectors, firms, and product –level information. Most importantly, it does so by consistently comparing China vis-à-vis the EU and including the US whenever suitable. The extent and granularity of the data used as well as the multi-country (China-EU-US), -level (country-sector-product), and -field (economy – innovation system – energy and environment) analytical approach aim to provide scientific evidence to a policy audience on a wide range of issues and allow to draw policy relevant conclusions.