The paper analyzes the influencing mechanisms of financial development on technological innovation modes and further discusses whether and how the ownership of firms affects these mechanisms. The results show that the credit market development promotes the self dependent technological innovation more than stock market development does in China and this relationship does not change due to the different ownership of firms. As far as state owned enterprises are concerned, the promoting effects of credit market on self dependent technological innovation in terms of R&D funds are bigger than those of stock market. On the contrary, stock market is more important for private enterprises. Generally, the financial development in China enhances both self dependent innovation and imitative innovation more for state owned enterprises than those for private firms.