The Evolution of China's National Innovation System During the 40 Years of Reform and Opening Up

From the perspective of economic system transformations and scientific and technological system reforms, this paper investigates the evolution of China’s national innovation system(NIS) during the 40 years of reform and opening up. It concludes that China’s NIS has evolved from weak to strong, from a follower groping its way onto the track of independent innovation with Chinese characteristics. China’s innovation system has experienced a trajectory from "introduction and imitation of complete sets of technology" to "market for technology and imitative innovation," to "integrated and secondary innovation" and on to "integrated, secondary, collaborative and original innovation combined." The path of independent innovation with Chinese characteristics is a natural choice of economic, societal, and technological development in the new era.