China is on pace to become the world's most important source for innovation by 2020, overtaking both the U.S. and Japan, according to a public opinion survey conducted by drugmaker AstraZeneca that will be released next week.

According to the survey results, which were pre-released earlier this week, the U.S. is currently viewed as the world's most innovative country, according to 30 percent of the 6,000 people who were polled, followed by Japan with 25 percent and China at 14 percent.

Switzerland may have overtaken the U.S. in the World Economic Forum's global competitiveness ranking last week, but the U.S. still owns bragging rights in the Economist Intelligence Unit's IT Industry Competitiveness Index.

According to the study, conducted annually by the Economist Group's research unit and sponsored by the Business Software Alliance, the U.S. is still number one in enabling competitiveness in the technology sector. That's not surprising, given that the tech sector was one of the few bright spots in the WEF's report. A little more shocking is who placed second in the EIU's ranking.