China’s leading economic planning agency, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), has issued a rare note of public caution regarding the rapidly escalating investment in the domestic humanoid robotics sector, warning that a speculative bubble may be brewing.

NDRC spokesperson Li Chao delivered the alert on Thursday, emphasizing that China’s humanoid robotics industry must find a delicate balance between “the speed of growth against the risk of bubbles,” particularly as more than 150 humanoid robotics companies, over half of which are startups or entrants from other industries, flood the market with highly similar models despite a scarcity of proven mass use cases.

While the NDRC seeks to establish better market entry and exit mechanisms and consolidate R&D resources to prevent this overcapacity, leading domestic companies like UBTech Robotics are simultaneously demonstrating significant technological commercialization that both fuels the investment frenzy and provides crucial validation for Beijing’s national strategy.

UBTech’s Industrial and Technological Milestones

UBTech, a Shenzhen-based company and one of the few publicly listed pure-play humanoid robot firms globally, has been at the forefront of translating academic ambition into industrial reality, focusing on three major scenarios: industrial manufacturing, commercial services, and household companionship.

The company has successfully executed a closed-loop commercial cycle from R&D to mass delivery and iterative improvement, providing the industry with a replicable model for scaled deployment. Its key achievements include:

• Mass Delivery and Industrial Adoption: UBTech has achieved the world’s first mass delivery of industrial humanoid robots with its Walker S2 series. These robots are already being deployed in real-world industrial settings, notably in automotive manufacturing—collaborating with major players like BYD, Geely Auto, and FAW-Volkswagen—as well as in smart factories, intelligent logistics, and data collection centers. The company has accumulated orders exceeding 800 million yuan (approximately $112 million), with significant contracts including a 159 million yuan order to deploy Walker S2 units at a data collection center in Zigong.
• Autonomous Operational Capability: The Walker S2 is distinguished as the world’s first industrial humanoid robot integrated with Co-Agent, UBTech’s proprietary intelligent agent system. This system grants the robot closed-loop operational capabilities, allowing for intention understanding, task planning, tool usage, and autonomous anomaly detection. Furthermore, the company successfully unveiled the Walker S2 model as the world’s first humanoid robot capable of autonomously replacing its own batteries, potentially enabling continuous, 24-hour operation on the factory floor without human assistance.
• Strategic Government Contracts: Expanding beyond traditional manufacturing, UBTech has secured a substantial contract valued at $37 million (USD) to trial its Walker robots at a major border crossing near Vietnam. In alignment with Beijing’s push to integrate advanced robotics into public services, these humanoids will assist with border management duties, traveler guidance, and logistics, showcasing their utility in high-stakes public service and security environments.

This intense drive toward embodied intelligence—the technology behind humanoid robotics—is viewed by the Chinese government as a national priority and one of the six key industries for future economic growth through 2030.

While NDRC spokesperson Li Chao rightly cautions that large-scale, widespread adoption by households or general factories has yet to materialize, the rapid technological breakthroughs and multi-million-dollar industrial contracts secured by companies like UBTech underscore the significant momentum and the high stakes involved in China’s race to lead the global robotics industry.

To my African leaders, I hope you are paying attention to the latest global developments: “Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney has sealed a sweeping agreement with Alberta that removes two major federal climate rules, clears the path for a West Coast oil pipeline, and exposes what many see as deep hypocrisy in the country’s energy politics.”

The move is echoing far beyond Ottawa and Edmonton as it is also being read internationally as another example of how Western governments push tough climate measures on developing nations while choosing flexibility for themselves when economic pressure rises.

Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith signed the deal on Thursday, scrapping Ottawa’s planned emissions cap on the oil and gas sector and dropping nationwide clean electricity rules. Alberta, in exchange, will strengthen industrial carbon pricing and endorse the massive Pathways Plus carbon capture-and-storage project, which aims to capture emissions from the oil sands and funnel them into a shared storage network.

Yes, Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith have agreed to scrap key federal climate policies in the name of energy security. The deal eliminates the federal emissions cap on the oil and gas sector, suspends national clean electricity regulations in Alberta, and even supports a new oil pipeline to the West Coast. In short, the agreement is designed to boost energy production, not restrict it.

When Russia invaded Ukraine and Europe cut back on Russian energy, Germany reopened coal mines instead of holding the climate line. As we know, the United States is out of the Paris Agreement at the moment. But for many observers, Canada’s latest move is especially surprising, given its loud and moralistic position in the global climate crusade.

I remain an advocate for protecting our planet. Climate change is real, and Africa will bear disproportionate consequences since we do not have the insurance systems and resources to build more resilient-infrastructures. But I want African leaders to see clearly the double standards of the very nations that caused most of the environmental damage in the first place. They are not fully honest about their commitments when their national interests are at stake.

And that means Africa must therefore be pragmatic, not naïve. In climate geopolitics, there is no absolute climate “right” or “wrong”, only national interest. Let us protect our environment, but let us also protect our development, understanding that global players will always choose themselves first.