Statistics published by the State Statistics Bureau show that in 2003 China's total expenditure in scientific research, experiment and development amounted to RMB 153.96 billion, or 1.31% of the GDP in the year. Of the expenditure, the basic study takes a 5.7% portion, or RMB 8.77 billion.

To raise China's basic research level, the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Education, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences jointly initiated and implemented in 1984 a national key lab program. As of the end of 2003, 161 operational national key labs and 6 experimental national labs have covered major basic research disciplines, with a staff over 5,000, and scientific instruments worth RMB 3 billion. These labs have an annual budget of more than RMB 2 billion.

According to statistics, during the period of 1997-2003, national key labs were granted with 40 second prizes by the National Natural Science Award. The number of papers authored by lab scientists that are collected by the international citation index went up from 3242 in 1999 to 7835 in 2003, securing an annual growth of 25%. These labs also published high caliber papers in the world renowned journals, including Nature, and Science.