Abstract: In the context of escalating Sino-US trade friction, this paper empirically studies the impacts of import competition from the United States on the innovation of China’s enterprises based on highly disaggregated micro enterprise data. The results show that: ① Overall, import competition from the United States has optimized the patent application structure of Chinese enterprises. Specifically, import competition from the United States has a significant positive effect on the number of invention patent applications, but has no significant effect on the number of utility patent and design patent applications. ② The influence of import competition from the United States on the highquality innovation of different enterprises is significant but heterogeneous. Import competition from the United States promotes highquality innovation in lowproductivity firms more than in highproductivity firms. Import competition from the United States has a significant effect on the highquality innovation of domestic enterprises, but has no significant effect on the highquality innovation of foreign enterprises. Import competition from the United States has a significant effect on the highquality innovation of enterprises with low financing constraints, but has no significant effect on the high-quality innovation of enterprises with high financing constraints. ③ Import competition from the United States increases the risk of Chinese companies exiting the market. In order to cope with the import competition from the United States, domestic enterprises promote the high-quality innovation by increasing investment in R&D and skilled workers as well as employment structure and scale improvement, which has resulted in the effect of escape competition.

Key words: Import Competition, Enterprise Innovation, Invention Patents, Research and Development, Escape Competition Effect