Of Humans and Humanoids in China

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Jul 2, 2025 - 09:57 Updated: Jul 2, 2025 - 00:19
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Of Humans and Humanoids in China

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Commentary

This rapidly rising trend of replacing humans in China with humanoids is disturbing at best, and unimaginably dystopian at worst.

For reasons that defy any sustainable logic, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) seems determined to integrate robots, humanoid or otherwise, into every facet of Chinese life—from factory floors and public venues to stores and even for services in private homes.

What’s more, in some urban areas, humanoid integration is happening quicker than many people realize.

This widespread use of AI-powered robots is not occurring by accident, either. It is policy-driven by the CCP and China’s fast-moving technology sector. It is happening just when China faces a number of regime-threatening economic and social problems that are making life for the average person more difficult every day.

There’s no doubt that the impact of shifting to a robotic workforce will be a disaster for everyday Chinese people.

The Employment Paradox

One pressing problem is China’s ongoing unemployment challenges. On the one hand, its population is rapidly aging, with tens of millions of workers retiring in the near future. As the retired population swells and is no longer productive, providing for their medical and other needs will only put more pressure on the country’s thinly stretched social systems.
On the other hand, most older people are leaving behind only one grown child. A shrinking population means fewer workers to fill manufacturing jobs. At the same time, many of those jobs won’t be filled by humans, as a Chinese social security expert recently warned the CCP that 70 percent of China’s 123 million manufacturing jobs are at risk of automation.
In a few years, China’s potential unemployment crisis will be even more disastrous than it is now. The country has more than 12 times the number of robots in its workforce today than experts predicted.

And yet, much of the need for labor will be filled by non-human workers. In short, there will be fewer workers, fewer jobs, and more robots taking available jobs from humans. Millions of China’s workers may soon find themselves out of work, unable to compete with a smart, highly efficient robot with AI-assisted capabilities that doesn’t eat, sleep, complain, get paid, or need a pension.

The statistics bear this out. Today, in China’s manufacturing hubs, there are already 470 humanoid robots per 10,000 workers. If the trend continues, that ratio will only rise.

China’s Robotic Industry

In a sad way, the rise of humanoid workers makes perfect business and demographic sense. Beijing’s global leadership in robotics accounts for 63 percent of the global humanoid robot supply chain. That includes key areas of dominance, such as 45 percent of the world’s core hardware and 90 percent of rare-earth processing.

Plus, the costs of robotic labor are dropping dramatically, making the economics of mass integration undeniable.

But China’s integration of humanoids goes much further. For example, by early 2025, Shanghai-based AgiBot had produced 1,000 humanoid robots that can think and perform real-world human tasks.

In short, the rise of humanoids deliberately turns the employment equation in China against real people. The unemployment trend in factory labor looks dire and is not likely to improve.

On the flip side, the demand for robotics-related workers will increase. That would include engineers, data analysts, AI-designers, product designers, maintenance technicians, and other related industries.

However, as the global leader in automated factories, the probability of the CCP adding expensive human manufacturing labor to their shrinking economy is low in the near or even long term.

Rise of the Humanoid Army?

Like many dual-use technologies, transitioning civilian-use AI-driven robots into automated police or even military forces is certainly possible. In fact, the CCP’s policy is to build general-purpose humanoids that could be easily repurposed for either policing or military roles by the end of this year.

The latest humanoid robots’ advanced intelligence, surveillance, and human-interaction capabilities could make a formidable police and intelligence-gathering force. This could help the Party maintain order in the event of civil unrest. At the very least, high-functioning humanoids operating amongst the human population could further diminish citizens’ privacy, particularly in urban areas.

The opportunity—or intent—to enforce law and order in a time of rising civil unrest, or to unleash divisions of robot soldiers against a so-called enemy, is not beyond the limits of CCP policy or behavior.

A better question might be simply, “Why wouldn’t they?”

CCP Wants to Normalize Humanoids

Recent market projections indicate a compounded annual growth rate of 17 percent in the humanoid market, increasing from $64 million in 2023 to $195 billion by 2030.

In highly populated areas such as Shenzhen and Shanghai, humanoids are becoming visible within the population.

Normalization is critical for several reasons. The CCP sees international adoption of China’s robots in both industrial and domestic capacities as a critical new source of growth for its withering economy. Beijing also hopes that China will attract new sources of much-needed direct foreign investment and provide new jobs for at least a portion of the Chinese workforce.

The CCP’s unbridled charge into AI-driven robotics reveals the dynamic interplay between humanoid technology, economic growth, and social order in this emerging, complex era. In real terms, the outcomes don’t look good and the future doesn’t look bright—not for humans, at least. The situation serves as a warning for us all.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
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