Chinese message through robot dance to welcome the new year

On the night of February 16, the Xuan Van music festival program of China Central Television CCTV Celebrating the Lunar New Year made a strong impression with a performance performed by a humanoid robot. Compared to last year’s simplicity, the new performance is more satisfying as the robot performs more difficult movements, continuously acrobatics, stick dances, martial arts performances… and coordinates smoothly with human dancers.

“At last year’s gala, the robots had a few elementary movements, but this year they are incredibly synchronized and balanced, certainly many people admire them,” Evrim Kanbur, a visiting professor at many Chinese universities, told News.com.au. “Such progress in just one year is truly unbelievable, but that is China’s speed.”

According to Kyle Chan, a Chinese technology research expert at the Brookings Institution (USA), the performance is Beijing’s way of showing off new technology to the world. Through its national television station, the country “amazed domestic and international audiences with its technological prowess”.

“Unlike AI models or industrial equipment, humanoid robots are a clear example of China’s technological leadership that everyone can see right through their TV or phone screen,” Chan told Guardian. “While the US and China are on par in AI, humanoid robotics is an area in which Beijing is confident of excelling, especially in its ability to expand production scale.”

Georg Stieler, head of the robotics and automation department at technology consulting firm Stieler Technology & Marketing, also said that China conveyed a clear message when choosing robots to perform in the national television station’s New Year’s program. The move provides a “direct link from industrial policy through a grand display”, as well as sending an important signal of progress with the ability to operate large numbers of identical robots in a stable and consistent manner.

“But the ability to perform on stage does not mean durability in an industrial environment,” Stieler said when asked about the risk that humanoid robots could “steal jobs” from humans. According to him, what the robot is doing is the result of a training series with the process of performing hundreds or even thousands of movements. Humans cannot simply tell them to change direction or do something else immediately.

“In fact, dance movements do not require skills to perceive the surrounding environment. They are simply learned and imitated, incorporating balance controls,” Stieler explained to Reuters. “These factors are not reliable enough when operating robots at the factory level.”

However, according to professor Marina Zhang at the University of Technology Sydney, the robot’s impressive performance at the New Year’s gala signals a new phase in China’s overall manufacturing plan, “where humanoid robots become a pillar in the transition from low-cost assembly to smart, high-end manufacturing”.

China is promoting the development of humanoid robots with a series of globally famous companies such as Agibot, UBTech, Unitree Robotics or emerging names such as Magiclab, Galbot and Noetix. According to Omdia, nearly 90% of all humanoid robots shipped globally last year belonged to Chinese companies.

Statistics from market research firm Counterpoint last month also showed that a total of 16,000 humanoid robots were installed around the world last year, mainly for data collection and research, as well as deployment in the fields of logistics, manufacturing and automobiles. Chinese brands dominate, with Shanghai-based AgiBot leading the way with a 30.4% market share, followed by Hangzhou-based Unitree with 26.4%.

Morgan Stanley predicts that Chinese humanoid robot sales will double to 28,000 units this year. Last month, billionaire Elon Musk predicted that Tesla Optimus’s biggest competitors would be Chinese companies.

“Outsiders underestimate China, but China is a formidable opponent on a different level,” Musk wrote on X.