Transforming economy and nation

Specifically, Huawei has been the largest technical contributor to patents essential to global 5G standards. The achievement came after Huawei spent about $90 billion on R&D from 2010 to 2019, Ding said.

Huawei's Chinese counterparts, including ZTE Corp and Oppo, have also made steady progress in filing for 5G patents as they attach more importance to protection of intellectual property rights and ramp up resources to pursue innovation-driven growth.

The latest report from German patent analytics company IPlytics showed that Huawei accounted for 15.39 percent of global 5G patent families, or collections of patent applications covering the same or similar technical content, as of Feb 1, topping the world's list.

Chinese telecom equipment maker ZTE ranked third, with 9.81 percent, and Oppo was ninth with 3.47 percent.

Sihan Bo Chen, China head of the Global System for Mobile Communications Association, said"5G is shaping the future, and China will continue to be at the forefront of this change.

"Every sector is undergoing deep transformation, and connected progress will stimulate global recovery and help the world overcome the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic," she said.