Humanoid robots: Trump's latest China trade battle?

Nik Martin

July 31, 2026

The US has banned foreign-made humanoid robots, a market Chinese tech firms dominate. Although Washington cited national security risks, analysts think Donald Trump is buying time for US robot makers to catch up.

Chinese humanoid robots have shown they can talk, win half marathons and enjoy martial artsImage: Ying Tang/NurPhoto/picture alliance

Washington is also concerned that a large cohort of low-cost Chinese robots could feed real-world data back to Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) systems, which are fast catching up with their US rivals.

The threat, however, is largely theoretical as most commercial humanoid robots are in early stages of development.

A worker checks a row of general-purpose embodied robots of Zhiyuan Robotics in Shanghai, China ( December 8, 2025)

China has the edge over the US in humanoid robot deploymentImage: Imaginechina/Sipa USA/picture alliance ### Robot runners beat humans in Beijing half-marathon

For the first time, humanoid robots have outclassed humans in a half-marathon held in Beijing. The winner beat the men's record for the distance set by Uganda’s Jacob Kiplimo in March.

ScienceApril 19, 2026

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