China Spent $28.74b On IP Imports In 2017

According to the Report on China's Services Imports released by the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM), China spent $28.74 billion for the use of intellectual property imports last year. The figure was up nearly 14-fold from 2001 when the country joined the World Trade Organization.

Most of China's payments for the use of intellectual property imports were for patents, trademarks and copyrights.

In 2017, the charges for the use of imported intellectual property accounted for 6.1 percent of China's total services imports.

China's cumulative services imports are expected to exceed $2.5 trillion over the next five years. Then, the country's services imports will account for more than 10 percent of global services imports, contributing over 20 percent to the growth of the global total.