Abstract:     The Global Innovation Index (GII) report, as an evaluation index with a wide range of innovation areas, not only provides an overview of global innovation capacity trends, but also fully reflects the strengths and weaknesses of China′s innovation capacities. By combing the GII 2011-2022 innovation capacity data, this paper analyzed the trends of global innovation capacity and China′s innovation capacities in the current situation, realistic difficult position, and comparative gaps. The results showed that: (1) the development of global innovation capacity is characterized by leading by the European regions, running in parallel with the North American regions, and following by the East Asian， Southeast Asian and Oceania regions. (2) China′s comprehensive innovation capacities are on a positive trend, but there are some problems in the main pillars of innovation inputs and outputs, such as the institutions are still lacking, human capital and research, the infrastructure need to be strengthened, and the creative outputs are still insufficient. Furthermore, in terms of sub-criteria, China′s innovation capacities have a significant advantage in the indicators of scale and quantity due to its population size, latecomer advantage and national system, but there is still room for improvement in the ecology, education, market and business operation models, and creativity. (3) There are gaps between China′s innovation capacities and those of others in institutions, human capital and research, and market sophistication, but not in knowledge and technology outputs and creativity outputs. The conclusion has enriched the related research on China′s innovation capacity evaluation and comparative gaps, and will provide countermeasures for government to improve China′s innovation capacity. 

Key words: global innovation index report, innovation capacity, overall trend, current dilemma, comparative gap