NANJING -- The number of postdoctorates involved in research programs in China reached 207,840 by 2018, with 6,737 postdoctoral research centers established, said a report on postdoctoral development released Sunday.

Among those working at postdoctoral research centers, 5,677 are foreign nationals. In 2018, 1,853 of the postdoctoral researchers were Chinese students who had obtained their doctorates abroad, according to the report issued in the academic exchange activities organized by the office of the national postdoctoral management committee and the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation in Nanjing, capital of East China's Jiangsu province.

The vast majority of postdoctoral researchers have become the main force of science and technology studies as well as academic and technical leaders in China, said Li Jinsheng, an official with the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security. Among those postdoctoral researchers, more than 100 work as academicians in the Chinese Academy of Sciences or the Chinese Academy of Engineering.

The report also showed that postdoctoral researchers who completed their research work in 2018 have published 43,010 papers and 2,235 academic books, undertook 26,203 national and provincial research projects and obtained 9,305 patents.