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Robotics
Opinion
SCMP Editorial
Editorial
SCMP Editorial

China’s AI-enabled robots set to transform global playing field

Chinese companies’ proven capability in making affordable, high-quality robotics is poised to be an engine of growth for the future

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The Unitree GD01 ‘mecha’ robot seen in bipedal mode. Photo: Handout
SCMP Editorial
Editorials represent the views of the South China Morning Post on the issues of the day.

The world might be in for another China shock: affordable AI-enabled robots. Chinese-made humanoid robots are already significantly cheaper than many Western rivals. Now, with state policy support, mainland companies are working fast to combine artificial intelligence (AI) with robotics. Is the world ready?

This month, Unitree Robotics unveiled a manned “mecha” capable of transitioning between bipedal-walking and four-legged modes. A high-strength alloy machine designed for civilian transport, the GD01 can be operated by a human inside its semi-skeletal frame, resembling the heavy-lifting robot operated by Sigourney Weaver in the 1986 blockbuster Aliens. Weighing 500kg with a pilot on board, the GD01 will cost 3.9 million yuan (US$574,500).
Breakthroughs are being made in embodied intelligence, or AI-embedded machines that can independently manoeuvre, make decisions and operate in the real world. Robots previously programmed for specific tasks in factories are being unleashed into the world. As they become integrated into human communities, there are physical and moral consequences to consider.
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In February, Alibaba Group Holding – which owns the South China Morning Post – launched RynnBrain, an open-source model that gives robots a “brain”. Last year, Unitree shipped more than 5,500 humanoid robots, compared with US firms such as Tesla, Figure AI and Agility Robotics, each of which shipped around 150 humanoid robots in that period. China accounted for nearly 90 per cent of global humanoid robot sales in 2025.

In October, the Central Committee of the Communist Party listed embodied AI alongside quantum computing, biomanufacturing, hydrogen and nuclear fusion energy, brain-computer interfaces and 6G as potential new engines of growth. Local governments have been working to include the new tech in their economic planning.

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Parallel to the shift from specialised to general AI, robots are becoming “intelligent”. China has also been a leading advocate for open-source AI use and global safety standards. Despite their fierce competition and distrust, authorities and profit-driven firms in the United States should cooperate with their Chinese counterparts.

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