Shenzhen is positioning itself for a bigger role in the global robotics arena after the city’s tech firms pledged to accelerate the roll-out of humanoid robots in line with Premier Li Qiang’s call to bolster industrial adoption of the technology.
Li, during his trip to China’s southern tech hub, urged enterprises in emerging technologies – including robotics and drones – to speed up new iterations and upgrades so that more industries and households could benefit, according to Xinhua news agency.
Responding to Li’s remarks, UBTech CEO Zhou Jian said the growth of the humanoid robotics industry needs to be driven by “the dual engines of policy support and application scenarios”, according to a company statement.
UBTech showed Li its Walker S2 robot performing a battery-swapping task during the visit. UBTech was on track to reach a production capacity of 10,000 units in 2026, Zhou announced, after the company produced 1,000 Walker S2 robots and secured total orders worth 1.4 billion yuan (US$200 million) in 2025.
Zhou pledged to go all out to make China’s humanoid robotics industry “a global leader”, and support the national goal of becoming a manufacturing powerhouse.
