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Research

Commissioned research
on China's technology
and industrial base.

Commissioned research on
China's technology and
industrial base.

Open-source intelligence engagements built on Datenna's proprietary data and delivered by our in-house China analysts. Capability assessments, ecosystem maps, entity deep-dives. For defence, intelligence, and corporate teams.

THE PROBLEM

The questions that matter most about China cannot be answered with dashboards alone.

Where does a Chinese technology programme actually sit on the path from research to operational deployment? Which actors really matter? How is capability funded, transferred, and operationalised? These questions need primary-source data on China at a scale almost nobody holds, the language fluency to read it, and the analytical methodology to turn it into a defensible answer. Generalist consultancies do not have the data. Data providers do not have the analysts.

50M+
Chinese entities indexed
7 yrs
Original Chinese-language collection
3,500+
Sources continuously monitored
What We Answer

Five questions. One body of evidence.

Every research engagement we run starts with one of these. The data foundation, methodology, and analyst team are built to answer them across any technology, any actor, any sector of China's industrial base.

01
Deployment readiness

Where does this technology sit on the path to operational use?

Read research output, patent activity, and procurement records together to assess where a given technology sits on the path from laboratory to field deployment.

02
Actor prioritisation

Which entities are the highest-priority nodes in this ecosystem?

Identify the specific institutes, companies, and individuals whose combined research output, IP holdings, and procurement activity place them at the centre of capability development.

03
Capability trajectory

How are research, patents, and procurement evolving over time?

Track filing rates, funding volumes, and procurement growth. Read the pace and direction of change as a signal of where China's investment priorities are heading.

04
Ownership architecture

What hidden affiliations and dual-use relationships sit behind a capability?

Trace corporate structures, subsidiary networks, and investment chains. Surface the affiliations and dual-use relationships behind the technology.

05
Ecosystem composition

Which actors drive this technology, and how are they distributed?

Classify the academic, corporate, state-owned, and military-linked actors in the ecosystem. Map their distribution across China's institutional landscape.

Data Foundation

Primary-source data on China. At the scale research demands.

Datenna operates the most comprehensive structured-data infrastructure on China's economic, academic, and industrial landscape. Sourced, cleaned, enriched, and risk-labelled in-house. No reliance on Chinese providers.

845K+Projects
01
Grants

Where the funding goes.

NSFC and MOST grants spanning decades. Reveals research priorities, funding volumes, and institutional mandates from foundational science to applied work.

45M+Records
02
Patents

What gets invented.

CNIPA filings from 1984 to present. Tracks IP ownership, inventor networks, technology maturity, and cross-sector diffusion from lab to field.

6.5M+Records
03
Procurement

What reaches the field.

Public tender records linking R&D outputs to end-user acquisition. Confirms operational deployment and identifies defence-sector buyer networks across China.

Three data types, read together. From research grant to operational deployment, in one body of evidence.

50M+
Company profiles with full registration data and ownership structures
79M+
Individual profiles. Executives, shareholders, legal representatives, researchers
27K+
Chinese academic and research institutes profiled
65K+
Chinese overseas investments and acquisitions, risk-classified

The wider entity, individual, and FDI inventory

What We Deliver

Five engagement types. Deployable independently or combined.

Every engagement is bespoke to the question. These are the analytical products our research team builds with.

Core. Powered by our proprietary data

The engagements built directly on Datenna's structured data infrastructure.

S&T Ecosystem Assessment

Maps a technology domain from research to deployment. Identifies the key actors, where intellectual property concentrates, procurement patterns, and how far China has progressed.

Entity Intelligence

Deep dive on Chinese entities. Ownership structure, funding trails, R&D and procurement activity, and networks of connected entities. Across any company, institution, or research entity in China.

S&T Program Reconstruction

Traces a technology programme's development trajectory from research to deployment. Publications, citation networks, personnel movements, component breakdowns.

Personnel and Career Path Tracking

Tracks researchers across institutions, identifies programme leadership, and surfaces knowledge-transfer patterns between civilian and defence sectors.

Knowledge Lineage

Detects foreign technology absorption, citation networks, and dual-use research collaborations. Traces where capability originated and how it was transferred.

Complementary. Powered by desk research

Targeted analyst work that supplements the data layer with open-source enrichment.

Analytical depth is subject to data availability. Coverage may be limited for niche or emerging topics and actors with sparse public documentation.
Methodology

A repeatable, multi-stage process.

The same six-stage workflow runs on every engagement. Findings are comparable, methodology is auditable, evidence is traceable to source.

01

Keyword taxonomy

Domain-specific vocabularies spanning materials, systems, manufacturing methods, and performance parameters. Built to extract relevant signal from millions of records.

02

Entity classification

Every actor in scope classified across five categories. Enables targeted analysis of defence-sector involvement, supply chain roles, and dual-use exposure.

03

Cross-source scoring

A Total Activity Score ranks organisations across research, patents, and procurement simultaneously. Identifies who is most active and strategically significant in the ecosystem.

04

Network and relationship mapping

Maps relationships between buyers, suppliers, and R&D institutions. Exposes vertical integration, hidden affiliations, and concentration risks across the supply chain.

05

Technical deep-dives

Focused investigation of priority sub-topics. Technology maturity, individual actor spotlights, patent portfolio analysis. Calibrated to the question the engagement is built around.

06

Desk research and OSINT

Analysts supplement structured data with open-source enrichment. 3,500+ sources continuously monitored across Chinese-language media, government channels, academic press, and sector-specific publications.

Recent Work

Selected research, 2023 to 2026.

Capability assessments, ecosystem maps, and entity deep-dives delivered to defence, intelligence, and corporate clients across Europe and North America.

S&T Ecosystem Assessment

Mapping PRC capability development, supply chains, and acquisition pathways.

Reads research, patents, and procurement together to track a technology end-to-end.

  • Single-Mode Fiber LasersCeramic Matrix Composites
  • Vacuum Electronic Devices and High-Power Microwave
  • High-Energy Laser Optics: Mirrors and Coatings
  • Ceramic Laser Media for High-Power Laser Systems
  • Cross-Medium UAVs: Air-Water Hybrid Platforms
  • Little Giants: Innovation via Patenting
  • Quantum Computing and Data Centers
  • High-Performance Computing Academic Landscape
  • Chinese UUV CapabilitiesAI and the PLA: Procurement Insights
Entity and Network Intelligence

Deep dives on Chinese entities, their ownership, and their networks.

Surfaces ownership architecture, R&D and procurement activity, and connected-entity networks.

  • Mapping the Network of CETC (China Electronics Technology Group Corporation)
  • Mapping the Network of CASIC (China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation)
  • Analysis of CASC Procurements (China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation)
  • Intelligence on China's Drone World Conference Participants
  • Chinese FDI in Europe's EV Sector
  • Chinese Investments in Semiconductors and US Export Controls
Case Studies

What the work actually looks like.

Three engagements with hard numbers and named findings. Each delivered as a structured report to a defence or intelligence client.

S&T Ecosystem Assessment

China's Little Giants: Innovation via Patenting

Measuring innovation behaviour across thousands of designated Little Giants using patent filing rates, technology topic analysis, and co-assignee network mapping.

  • Nearly two-thirds of designated Little Giants reduced patent filing rates after designation. A minority of overachievers pulled the mean to +22% while the median fell 24.5%.
  • Digital technology dominates CET-linked filings. 60% of CET-labelled patents centre on autonomous systems, advanced materials, and AI. Direct alignment with Made in China 2025 strategic priorities.
  • Defence co-authorship is documented and traceable. 868 Little Giants carry DEF labels, 546 hold CET-linked patents, and 14 are confirmed co-filing with PLA units across Rocket Force, Strategic Support Force, and the People's Liberation Army Navy.
705,438
Patent Records Analysed
27,074
CET-labelled patents (4.6% of total)
868
Little Giants with defence linkages

S&T Ecosystem Assessment

Vacuum Electronic Devices and High-Power Microwave

Assessing China's HPM/VED research base, CETC dominance, and application maturity across operational domains.

  • China holds up to 90% of global HPM-related patents. Defence research topics surged 84% from 2010 to 2019. The Hurricane 3000, China's first vehicle-mounted HPM anti-drone system, confirms operational deployment.
  • Development has shifted from device physics to compact, field-deployable architectures. Megawatt-class microwave generation chains are approaching operational readiness.
  • Civilian fusion and radar programmes are the main dual-use vectors. High-power RF from tokamak and accelerator programmes is directly transferable to directed energy. A parallel development pathway.
567
Research Projects (RMB 521M)
10,782
Patent Filings, 1985 to 2024
425
Procurements, 2009 to 2025

S&T Ecosystem Assessment

Ceramic Laser Media for High-Power Laser Systems

Mapping China's ceramic laser gain media ecosystem. IP concentration, actor capabilities, and defence procurement uptake.

  • A five-fold patent surge since the early 2000s. 71% held by defence-linked actors. The 2024 spike to 17 procurement contracts, all from defence-industrial buyers, signals a shift to application-driven demand.
  • SICCAS is China's premier actor, spanning powder synthesis to commercial yttrium aluminium garnet supply. Leads the dataset in patents and maintains direct defence-industry ties.
  • China has secured YAG at production scale. Investment is shifting to sesquioxides, the material family decisive for next-generation directed-energy performance, where China is at the international research frontier.
131
Research Projects (RMB 96.6M)
1,134
Patent Filings, 1985 to 2024
32
Procurement Records, 2019 to 2024
How We Work

Six to eight weeks. Three feedback windows. One report.

Every engagement runs six to eight weeks from topic receipt to final delivery, calibrated to scope and complexity. Three structured client checkpoints throughout. Not a one-way handover at the end. A continuous dialogue that keeps the research aligned to what you actually need to know.

Phase 1 -SCOPING
Phase 2 -ANALYSIS
Phase 3 -INTEGRATION
01Week 01

Early scoping alignment

Proposed approach, methodology, and macro-structure agreed with you before analysis begins. Ensures we are pointing at the right question, with the right method, before the team starts work.

02Week 04

Mid-engagement review

A substantive draft shared partway through. Direction and emphasis can be adjusted while it still matters, not after the report is bound. The most important checkpoint in the engagement.

03Week 06 to 08

Final integration

Your feedback integrated into the final deliverable. Briefings, presentations, or follow-up Q&A sessions can be scoped on top. The completed report answers the question you actually asked.

PHASE1
PHASE2
PHASE3
SCOPING
01
Week 01

Early scoping alignment

Proposed approach, methodology, and macro-structure agreed with you before analysis begins. Ensures we are pointing at the right question, with the right method, before the team starts work.

ANALYSIS
02
Week 04

Mid-engagement review

A substantive draft shared partway through. Direction and emphasis can be adjusted while it still matters, not after the report is bound. The most important checkpoint in the engagement.

INTEGRATION
03
Week 06 to 08

Final integration

Your feedback integrated into the final deliverable. Briefings, presentations, or follow-up Q&A sessions can be scoped on top. The completed report answers the question you actually asked.

Why Datenna

The data and the people who read it.

Open-source intelligence on China at this depth requires both. The proprietary data infrastructure, sourced and processed in-house. And an analyst team with the language fluency, sector expertise, and methodology to turn it into intelligence you can act on. Almost nobody else has both under one roof.

The data

Proprietary, primary-source, processed in-house.

Sourced from Chinese-language registries, government filings, patent offices, procurement portals, and primary documents. Updated continuously. No reliance on Chinese providers.

Companies and institutes50M+ entities, 27K+ research bodies
R&D and IP845K+ projects, 45M+ patents
Procurement6.5M+ records, military and state
People79M+ profiles
Sources monitored3,500+, continuously
The team

In-house China analysts. Native fluency, sector depth.

A standing analyst bench with native and near-native Chinese-language fluency, deep sector expertise across defence and technology, and a methodology built on years of running this work for governments and corporates.

Combined China expertise150+ years on the bench
Language fluencyNative and near-native Chinese
Sector coverageSemiconductors, materials, directed energy, autonomy, quantum, AI, aerospace, biotech
MethodologySix-stage process, auditable findings
Data engineeringIn-house, alongside the analysts
Where it matters

Independent. European-incorporated.

Eindhoven and Washington DC. Independently owned, European-incorporated. Operating under frameworks governments trust to handle China intelligence. Advisory board including the former Chief of MI6 and the former CEO of Fox-IT.

Frequently Asked

Practical questions.

Six to eight weeks from topic receipt to final delivery, calibrated to scope and complexity. Faster turnaround is possible for narrower questions or lighter deliverables. We will be honest in scoping about what is realistic in the time available.
Every engagement is scoped individually. Pricing depends on the question, the data depth required, and the deliverable format. Get in touch and we will scope it together.
Most engagements deliver as a full structured report (PDF) plus the underlying data tables. Briefings, presentations, and follow-up Q&A sessions can be scoped on request.
Technology domains, specific Chinese entities, supply chains, FDI patterns, ecosystem mapping, and capability assessments. Sectors covered to date include semiconductors, advanced materials, directed energy, autonomous systems, quantum, AI, aerospace, and biomanufacturing.
Analytical depth depends on data availability. Coverage may be limited for niche or emerging topics and for actors with sparse public documentation. We flag these limits in scoping rather than paper over them in the final report.
Generalist consultancies do not hold primary-source Chinese data at this scale, and most do not read Chinese sources directly. Our analysts work in Chinese-language registries, procurement records, patent grants, and government filings every day. The data foundation is what makes the analysis defensible.
Independently owned, European-incorporated. SOC 2 Type II certification in progress. Scoping conversations covered by NDA on request. Engagements are confidential by default. Findings are not reused or syndicated.
Yes. Research engagements often pair with Entity Screening for the screening layer, or with Datenna Online for ongoing monitoring of identified actors. We will scope the combination in the initial conversation.
GET STARTED

Have a question on China you cannot answer? Bring it to us.

Tell us the question, the audience, and the timing. We will come back with scope, methodology, and a cost estimate.

Contact us