How are a nation's achievements in innovation defined, and how do they relate to economic performance? What are the major features, strengths and weaknesses of a country's innovation system? How can governments foster innovation? The OECD Reviews of Innovation Policy offer a comprehensive assessment of the innovation system of individual OECD member and non-member countries, focusing on the role of policy and government. They also provide concrete recommendations on how to improve a wide range of policies that affect innovation performance of countries. Each review identifies good practices from which other countries may learn. China has achieved a spectacularly high rate of economic growth over a sustained period for more than two decades. Nevertheless, today China faces the challenge of making the transition from sustained to sustainable growth from social, economical, ecological and envionmental points of view. Innovation has been identified as a main engine for this new growth model, and the Chinese government has launched a national strategy to build an innovation-driven economy and society by 2020. Will China be able to succeed in making this challenging transition?What will it require in terms of policy and institutional changes? How will China's emergence as a future innovation economy affect the OECD countries, as well as the global systems for knowledge production, dissemenation and use? This report sheds light on these issues by assessing the current status of China's national innovation system and policies, and by recommending the most important improvements required in both the policy and institutional environments for China to succeed in promoting innovation through a market-based approach.