Abstract: This study examines whether CEO turnover affects technical innovation or not in China, where most listed firms change CEO frequently. My proposition is that because of frequent turnover, CEO barely gain rewards from technical innovation, so he would restrain technical innovation. Data on 281 Chinese Listed Companies 1535 samples during 2005 to 2011 confirmed this judgment. More interestingly, the study also shows that turnover in non-state-owned enterprise has more significant negative influence on technical innovation than state-owned enterprise; Turnover in non-high-tech enterprises has more significant negative influence on technical innovation than high-tech enterprises; Turnover of old CEO has more significant negative influence on technical innovation than the young. These results suggest that companies need to reduce CEO turnover, strengthen the supervision of CEO short-term behavior, extend CEO assessment period and develop internal labor market.