A staff member demonstrates the intelligent automotive solution developed by Huawei at the 2020 Beijing International Automotive Exhibition in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 26, 2020. (Xinhua/Chen Jianli)

Starting from low levels in the late 2000s, the innovative activity of China increased at a "very high rate", with an annual average growth of 39.3 percent between 2010 and 2018, almost twice the global average growth rate, the study noted.

The ten biggest companies in terms of patent filings accounted for nearly a quarter of all IPFs for 4IR technologies between 2010 to 2018, the study found. At the top of the list were Samsung and

A visitor wears Huawei 5G AR glasses during a Huawei roadshow in Madrid, Spain, Nov. 5, 2020. (Xinhua/Meng Dingbo)

LG, followed by U.S. company Qualcomm, Japan's Sony and China's Huawei. ZTE is the second Chinese company to move onto the list of the 20 leading companies, ranking 13th.

In addition, both Shenzhen and Beijing are two of the world's most important clusters for 4IR patents. Shenzhen accounts for 3.1 percent of all patents in this field worldwide, ranking fifth, and Beijing accounts for 2.3 percent of all 4IR patents globally between 2010 and 2018.