Dancing humanoid robots took centre stage on Monday during the annual China Media Group’s Spring Festival Gala, China’s most-watched official television broadcast. They lunged, backflipped, spun around and jumped, performing martial arts and comedy sketches alongside human performers. The display impressed viewers but raised questions about the robots' capabilities and the political messaging behind the spectacle.
Experts offered mixed opinions. Kyle Chan of the Brookings Institution said Beijing uses such performances to “dazzle domestic and international audiences with China’s technological prowess,” noting that humanoid robots are highly visible examples of leadership. Georg Stieler, a robotics consultant, highlighted the direct pipeline from industrial policy to prime-time spectacle but cautioned that stage performance does not equate to industrial robustness, as the robots were trained for routines hundreds or thousands of times with little environmental perception.
China’s robot industry is expanding rapidly: by end of 2024, over 451,700 robotics companies had been registered, with total capital of 6.44tn yuan. Government initiatives like Made in China 2025 and the 14th Five-Year Plan prioritise robotics and AI. Morgan Stanley projects China’s humanoid sales will more than double to 28,000 units in 2026, and Elon Musk has acknowledged Chinese companies as major competitors in the field.
Marina Zhang, a technology professor at the University of Technology Sydney, said the showcase likely signals a new phase in China’s manufacturing masterplan, where robotics becomes central to shifting from low-cost assembly to high-end smart manufacturing.
