more than 4% for more than two centuries-a pace maintained in spite of varying economic or social conditions, which include dramatic shifts of the centres of research among countries. After being led by France, Germany and the US, with no effect on its stable growth rate, CS is currently undergoing another shift, from the US to China, while keeping its growth rate. Consequently, the increasing contributions of China to the CS come at the expense of other countries, as we report in this contribution. In particular, it is the US whose share is dramatically decreasing. Meanwhile, the relative contributions of other countries remain relatively steady, although India's share is gradually rising, and Japan's share is decreasing, albeit less dramatically than the shifts observed for China and the US. Interestingly, US contributions to the CS increasingly rely on international collaboration, especially with China, while the Asian country's contributions are mainly the result of its own national efforts. We also found that China is today the leading contributor to the organic chemistry and rare-earth regions of the CS. The former spans the vast majority of the CS and the rare-earth region is a key driver of modern technologies.