BEIJING — China's spending on research and development (R&D) hit a record high of 2.4 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) in 2020, up 0.16 percentage points from the previous year, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed.

China's total expenditure on R&D amounted to 2.4 trillion yuan (about $377.7 billion) last year, up 10.2 percent, or an increase of 224.95 billion yuan compared with that in 2019, according to a report jointly released by the NBS, the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Finance.

Investment in basic research stood at 146.7 billion yuan last year, accounting for 6 percent of the total R&D spending, the data showed.