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Mapping the distribution of foreign applications for patents in China, 1987–2017

Despite the growing number of foreign applications for patents in China, the spatial distribution of countries that have applied for patents in China, as well as its evolution, has yet to be investigated. By using cartograms, this paper aims to show the evolving distribution of countries that have applied for patents in China from 1987 to 2017. First, we find that the number of patents applied for in China has been far from evenly distributed across countries. Rather, it has been mainly concentrated in several countries such as Japan, the USA, and Germany. Second, the distribution pattern changed a lot during the first decade of the study period and has remained relatively stable over the last two decades. Third, recent years have also seen an increasing number of patent applications in China by some offshore financial markets like the Cayman Islands, where many high-tech companies are registered.