South China Morning Post (SCMP)

How Does China Plan to Dominate the Global Humanoid Robot Market?

China is positioning itself to dominate the global humanoid‑robot market, a priority highlighted at this year’s Two Sessions where Premier Li Chang named "embodied AI" a top national agenda. The strategy combines massive state‑backed funding, data‑sharing initiatives, and a surge of private‑sector entrants to accelerate research, development, and deployment across manufacturing, logistics, and eventually households. By 2025, China will host roughly four‑fifths of the world’s 16,000 installed humanoid units, with firms like Xiaomi already fielding robots on automotive assembly lines for tasks such as badge installation and nut placement. Yet performance gaps remain—Xiaomi’s founder Lei Jun described the machines as “interns” that sometimes fail to tighten bolts correctly. Over 150 domestic manufacturers are flooding the market, driving prices down to under ¥10,000 for entry‑level models. Officials cite ambitious targets: a ¥400 billion market by 2030 and exceeding ¥1 trillion by 2035, supported by state‑owned enterprises placing orders and creating city‑wide data pools to cut R&D costs. Critics caution that the rapid proliferation of similar, low‑cost products could spark a bubble and stifle genuine innovation. If China achieves these goals, its factories could become largely automated, reshaping global supply chains and labor dynamics, while the household robot segment may create new consumer markets. However, the path forward hinges on overcoming technical reliability, avoiding market oversaturation, and sustaining investment beyond the hype.