XINHUA
Artists and staff pose for a group photo with humanoid robots in January 2025, after the show that launched the useless robot “fever”
Humanoid robots that don’t do anything truly useful are fashionable everywhere, but in China they are a real epidemic. The Beijing government is worried, and demands real innovation from the companies that are producing them – or else, it’s better not to try.
The enormous enthusiasm surrounding humanoid robots, which, at least for now, cannot even do anything useful, is scare the Chinese economy — there are fears that we are witnessing a bubble — like the electric bikes of 2017.
On Thursday, journalists in Beijing revealed a unusual advertisement made by China’s central economic planning body, the National Development and Reform Commission.
The commission detected a recurring patternwith dozens and dozens of Chinese companies launching humanoid robots that, in essence, they don’t do anything special — and they do practically the same way.
According to Bloomberg, the organization’s spokesperson, Li Chaoexpressed concern that this wave of robots could divert smart people of truly valuable and relevant research.
China seems to be noticing what we’ve all noticed: news about flashy Chinese robots, that exist just because , or are , or can forever, or have — but which essentially do nothing. Or, even worse than a useless robot, just a robot, which also doesn’t do anything.
On the other hand, there is a lack of enthusiasm in relation to the enormous army of industrial robots working in Chinese factories — who, unlike their superstar brethren, are not sexy but effectively contribute to the Chinese economy with useful work.
According to , this craze started in the country after a truly impressive dance performance, led by a formation of robots. Unitree during the 2025 Spring Festival Gala — the Chinese New Year television broadcast, which is also the most watched television program in the world.
As Li Chao warned, “avant-garde industries have long struggled to find the balance between growth speed and the risk of bubbles — a problem that now also faces the humanoid robot sector”
This statement amounts to a thinly disguised warning that the Beijing government considers that, by manufacturing these products, it may be putting the stability of the Chinese economy.
See the case of bike sharing appswhich between 2016 and 2018 created a economic bubble in China.
There were dozens of apps with identical purposes. When the bubble burst, the result was embarrassing images of “bike cemeteries”which today serve as a classic example of out of control economic speculation.
China is known for not hesitating to arrest your tech mogulsand every time one more is arrested, Serves as a warning to any CEO of humanoid robot companies that think they defy the guidelines now publicly expressed by the government: fewer robotic companies, please.
Naturally, Chinese robots aren’t going away, and the CEOs of the companies that make them don’t have to worry about the risk of going to prison — unless their robots show up. in the video below…
