Through the critical engagement with current literature on the geography of innovation, this paper proposes that this sub-discipline of human geography has been developing within the context of post-Fordist and neoliberal transformation of western society since the 1990s whereby international and inter-regional competition became the accepted development ideology and policy discourse. Thus, the endogenous nature of local and regional traits and their role in promoting innovativeness and development are highly emphasized in the face of place competition, whilst paying undue attention to exogenous dynamism in innovation processes. With the recent new technological progress, as well as the increasing needs of innovation to address grand societal challenges, however, it becomes more pressing to upscale process of innovation activities. Moreover, the exogenous processes have been playing a key role in China’s after-reform development, and the globalization and localization has become highly interdependent and dialectical against the context of gradual institutional reform. Therefore, this paper attempts to discuss the potentials of Chinese studies to advancing the field from three aspects. First, it analyses the specific institutional arrangements of innovation through its evolution from pre-reform to post-reform era, and summarizes how it is characterized as a state-led system with aggressive investment in innovative inputs. Secondly, the development of territorial innovation system in China has been analysed through the lens of inter-scalar processes. It is noted that we must highlight the interplay between scalar forces, as illustrated in modern and global innovation systems framework to address the challenges such as aging society, public health, and climate change. Last but not least, the Chinese innovation dynamics within the emerging context of worldwide economic restructuring has been envisaged. As China’s innovation organization has been centered around the rising notion of techno-nationalism, the geopolitical tensions and power struggle inexorably influences the innovation processes. In general, it advocates that the diverse geography, governmentality and exogenous-driven model of Chinese innovation system jointly define the significance of Chinese studies to reconceptualise modern innovation geography. Finally, it is suggested that contemporary worldview should incorporate China into the fundamental system of global capital circulation, so that the dialectical geographic process of multi-scalar and multi-processes nesting and feedback system of innovation could be reflected in depth.