Beijing
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The back-flipping, nunchuck-weilding humanoid robots could have delighted and amazed viewers at China’s annual televised new-year extravaganza with their kung-fu choreography.
But they – and their rivals who took to the stage Monday evening – additionally carried a message about simply how quickly Chinese androids are advancing.
The fluid actions, agility and fault restoration of Chinese agency Unitree Robotics’ bots – which kicked and flipped on-stage alongside younger, human martial artists throughout the broadcast – have been leaps forward of the staid handkerchief-twirling and shuffling footwork of the Unitree fashions that carried out final 12 months to a lot fanfare.
And it wasn’t simply Unitree. Across state broadcaster CCTV’s Spring Festival Gala this 12 months, China’s rising tech capabilities – and the fierce competitors inside its high-tech sector – have been on full show.
It’s a theme that’s not new at the gala, China’s largest televised event, which equates roughly to the Super Bowl in its TV programming heft. But it underscores China’s rising drive to remodel itself into a tech powerhouse amid a tech rivalry with the US.
Several main robotics corporations took coveted slots in the roughly four-hour-long gala.
MagicLab’s humanoid robots carried out choreography as human pop stars crooned “We are made in China” in a dance quantity pointedly named “Intelligent Manufacturing Future.” The firm’s robotic canine have been clad in panda fits for an additional phase.
Noetix Robotics confirmed off its functionality in creating humanoids made to seem like actual folks, with an actress rolling out an android model of herself in a comedy skit. And Beijing-based agency Galbot’s robot confirmed the way it can do on a regular basis duties like cracking walnuts, skewering sausages and folding garments.
AI also had its moment. This 12 months, ByteDance’s Doubao platform, a gala sponsor, despatched out waves of hongbao or purple envelopes with digital money to customers of its AI chatbot app all through the present, whereas a comic at one level requested the app for recommendation. The firm additionally stated its AI video-generation mannequin Seedance 2.0 participated in the visible creation of a number of applications.
The preponderance of robots was celebrated by many throughout Chinese social media as subjects associated to their performances racked up hundreds of thousands of views and customers marveled at how briskly they have been growing.
“This is the most stunning performance at this year’s Spring Festival Gala. It might even send shock waves across the Pacific,” one commentator on China’s X-like platform Weibo wrote about the Unitree choreography and alluding to US-China competitors.
But the present was additionally criticised for focusing an excessive amount of on the androids. “We are looking for humans amid all the robots,” one person wrote on the identical platform, in a remark extensively echoed throughout social media dialogue.
State media additionally framed the gala as drumming up client demand, with outlet Global Times reporting that robots from manufacturers together with MagicLab, Unitree and Noetix offered out after being provided by on-line retailer JD.com throughout the gala.
The race to good robots and automate is a part of Beijing’s sweeping push to upgrade the country’s manufacturing capabilities and defend its place as the world’s manufacturing facility flooring in a new period of excessive tech, rising labor prices and a shrinking workforce.
China is already by far the world’s largest industrial robot market and residential to greater than half of all robots put in worldwide in 2024, based on the International Federation of Robotics.
While humanoids have up to now been most seen in novelty appearances and leisure like Monday’s present, they’re additionally being piloted on meeting strains, in logistics hubs and in science labs. Dozens of firms are engaged on improvement in a discipline flush with subsidies.
Last 12 months was one by which the public obtained used to seeing androids rising more proficient at motion, showing as showpieces in promotional sport occasions and leisure. But 2026 is extensively seen as the 12 months when work on their real-world functions, particularly in business, will take middle stage.
Unitree CEO Wang Xingxing referenced the excessive stakes for the sector in feedback to state media after the gala.
“In the past one or two months, I’ve personally been under quite a lot of pressure. We had to deliver a performance that was significantly better than last year’s,” he stated.
“We hope that through our company’s efforts – and through the collective efforts of society as a whole – we can help advance the development of the entire robot industry.”