FILE: China ramps up 'high stakes' tech race, envisioning commercialising AI-powered humanoid robots

Record ID: 2361403

  • Title: FILE: China ramps up 'high stakes' tech race, envisioning commercialising AI-powered humanoid robots
  • Date: 5th March 2026
  • Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (MARCH 4, 2026) (REUTERS) (MUTE) VARIOUS OF THE DAILY TELEGRAPH FRONT PAGE WITH HEADLINE READING (English) “Starmer is no Churchill” VARIOUS OF THE INDEPENDENT FRONT PAGE WITH HEADLINE READING (English): “War spreads across Middle East as Trump rages at Starmer” VARIOUS OF THE DAILY MAIL FRONT PAGE WITH HEADLINE READING (English): “A prime m
  • Embargoed:
  • Keywords: china humanoid parliament robots tech
  • Location: VARIOUS
  • City: VARIOUS
  • Country: China
  • Topics: Asia / Pacific,Information Technologies / Computer Sciences,Science
  • Reuters ID: LVA003113805032026RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text:China on Thursday (March 5) set out a five-year roadmap to turbocharge scientific breakthroughs and embed AI across its industrial economic machine, framing technological dominance as a core national security goal in its sharpening rivalry with the U.S..
    The five-year plan aims to raise the value-added of "core digital economy industries" to 12.5% of GDP and roll out new policies for an integrated national data market, AI adoption across the full supply chain, and an AI security system.
    Ambitions span biomedicine, quantum tech, atomic-scale manufacturing, hyper-scale computing clusters, nuclear fusion, brain-computer interfaces and even commercializing AI-powered humanoid robots.
    The 141-page plan name-checks AI over 50 times, envisioning robots plugging labor shortages and factories operating with little human oversight. It builds on a breakout year for Chinese developers - led by DeepSeek - who rapidly closed the gap with U.S. leaders such as OpenAI and Gemini.
    (Production: Timothy Sim, Daniel Lim)
  • Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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