This paper reviews the development of the R&D fund system since the founding of the People's Republic of China, and analyzes the main departments, the quantity, the fields and the object of the R&D fund in terms of the perspective of allocating funds. Through data and text analyses, it is found that:1. various ministries, especially, the ministry of finance and the ministry of science and technology, are the main departments of government funding, but the enterprises provide more funds in science and technology than the government. Accordingly, the executive department of the R&D expenditure puts the ranks in the order of the enterprises, the R&D institutions, and the universities according to the amount of expenditure. 2. China's investment in the R&D continues to increase. The proportion of the science and technology appropriations in the public expenditure is decreased, but remains stable at about 4% in recent years. The intensity of the R&D investment increases year by year, and has exceeded some developed countries. 3. Although the basic research accounts for the lowest proportion in the internal expenditure of the R&D, the managers of the science and technology funding starts to pay more attention to the basic research. 4. Funding of special science and technology programs is oriented to the important practical needs of the national economy and people's livelihood issues, indicating that China's R&D funding system puts both the basic research and the practical problems into consideration.

R&D fund system  /  natural science fund  /  intensity of R&D expenditure input