In a significant statement addressing growing employment concerns, a Chinese official overseeing one of Beijing's largest tech hubs has affirmed that the country's burgeoning humanoid robot industry will not lead to mass unemployment.
Liang Liang, deputy director at the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area, stated in an interview on Friday that humanoid robots will not replace their human creators but instead boost productivity and operate in hazardous environments. "We don't believe robots will make people unemployed, but rather they'll boost efficiency or take on tasks humans are unwilling to do - like exploring the vast universe or the ocean depths where people can't go," Liang explained.
He further elaborated, "When it's nighttime and humans need rest, machines could keep working, giving us better, cheaper, and more user-friendly products. So we see this as the direction for our future development."
Liang used the recent robot half-marathon as an analogy for human-robot coexistence: "You see, in the marathon, humans have their track where they push their physical limits, and the machines have their own track where they jointly challenge their limits - but they aren't trying to take over the human course to sprint to the finish line. The future will be like this too." Liang spoke at the headquarters of state-backed X-Humanoid (Beijing Humanoid Robotics Innovation Centre), whose robot Tiangong Ultra won the inaugural robot half-marathon.
The reassurance comes amid unprecedented government support for the sector. Chinese authorities are providing generous subsidies for humanoid firms, with more than $20 billion allocated over the past year. Beijing is also establishing a one trillion yuan ($137 billion) fund to support startups in areas such as AI and robotics. State procurement of humanoid robots and related technologies jumped to 214 million yuan in 2024 from just 4.7 million yuan in 2023.
China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology published guidelines detailing the country's ambitions to develop humanoid robots, stating they are likely to become another disruptive technology similar to computers or smartphones. According to the document, China aims to be ready to mass-produce humanoids by 2025, establishing a humanoid innovation system, making breakthroughs in key technologies, and ensuring the safe and effective supply of core components. By 2027, humanoids should become an important new engine of economic growth in China.
According to Ming Hsun Lee, head of Greater China automotive and industrials research at BofA Global Research, China sees humanoid robots as an important industry because of their potential to mitigate looming labor shortages. "I think in the short-term, three to four years, we will see humanoid robots initially applied in production lines to compare some workers, and in the midterm, we will see them gradually spread into the service industry," he said.