Like DeepSeek, the Chinese artificial-intelligence start-up that released a wildly popular chatbot this year, Unitree exemplifies Beijing’s efforts to dominate the technologies of the future — from AI and quantum computing to electric vehicles and robots — and unseat the United States.

“They are almost the symbol of China’s ability to operate at the cutting edge of robotics,” said Kyle Chan, an expert on Chinese industrial policy at Princeton University. “They’ve become kind of like the DeepSeek of the robotics world for China.”

Unitree’s importance to Beijing’s vision for a high-tech future was underscored recently when its dancing robots performed, in traditional Chinese dress, at the Spring Festival Gala, a state-broadcaster-organized variety show that has been viewed almost 17 billion times. Then Unitree’s millennial founder was in the front row at a high-profile symposium hosted by Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

“China’s robot technology has made leaps and bounds, with the gap between domestic capabilities and international advanced standards narrowing significantly,” Qiao Hong, an automation expert and Chinese government adviser, said during the Two Sessions, according to the state-run China Daily.

This year, Beijing’s annual agenda referred to intelligent robots for the first time, according to state media. Separately, Beijing last month announced a $13 billion fund to develop AI and robotics, while Shenzhen city and Guangdong province recently set up similar funds to support AI and robotics.

This kind of government support has transformed China over the past decade into a center of the global robotic industry and allowed Chinese firms to go head-to-head with U.S. robotic firms like Boston Dynamics and Tesla’s Optimus, analysts say.

“They really are committed to robot development in China at the national level,” said Robert Atkinson, president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a Washington-based tech policy think tank.

There were almost half a million smart-robot firms registered with Beijing at the end of last year — more than three times the number in 2020 — with a combined registered capital of over $888 billion. Although only a fraction will succeed, this number highlights the unrivaled scale of China’s rush into robotics, analysts said.

China is driven not only by a desire to dominate a crucial emerging industry but also by the twin difficulties of a rapidly shrinking workforce and rising labor costs.

Pushing for industries to adopt robotic innovation is a way to sustain “manufacturing competitiveness in the face of really, seriously low-wage competition” from countries like Vietnam, Atkinson said.

Chan, of Princeton, said China’s robot advances also reflect the interconnectedness of its high-tech industries and the cumulative impact of advances across many types of technology.

Building up a supply chain for AI, advanced machinery and batteries, for example, provides the building blocks and manufacturing capacity for a strong robotics industry, he said.

“All these emerging industries are tied together in China,” Chan said. “It coalesces together in this across-the-board progress in a number of different industries.”

At the forefront of China’s robot revolution is Unitree, which Wang Xingxing founded in 2016 in Hangzhou, the tech hub that is also home to DeepSeek.

Wang, born in 1990, was a quiet, geeky student when he attended Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, spending most of his time in the library reading books about AI, machinery and physics, according to an article published by the university.

As a master’s student at Shanghai University, he developed a robot dog prototype that earned him media attention and laid the foundation for Unitree, according to the company’s website.

Within a few years, he had set up Unitree — a name combining the words “universe” and “tree” — which expanded from robot dogs to humanoid robots. The company showcased its futuristic technology at the Winter Olympics in Beijing in 2022 and during the 2023 Super Bowl, where its robot dogs danced stiffly alongside American singer Jason Derulo.

Unitree now makes 60 percent of the world’s four-legged robots, according to the state-run People’s Daily.

Unitree did not respond to multiple requests for comment, but in an interview with the TMTPost last year, Wang laid out his ambitions.

“Within our lifetime, humanoid robots will be able to revolutionize every industry, from industrial and service sectors to agriculture and manufacturing,” he told the Chinese tech outlet. “On an even grander scale, governments could deploy 100,000 humanoid robots to build an entire city.”

Wang credited his company’s success to the breakneck development of AI, which has sped up Unitree’s robot-training process.

“Currently, the progress in AI technology, including its capabilities, has far exceeded my personal expectations,” Wang said in the interview. “… The reason we’ve progressed so quickly is simple: the rapid advancement of AI technology.”

Just like DeepSeek, Unitree has built its business model on competitive pricing. The company’s cheapest robot dog goes for $1,600, according to its website, while a humanoid robot costs $16,000. A robot dog from Boston Dynamics, by contrast, goes for around $75,000.

This is indicative of China’s overall strategy, said Liu Gang, a professor at Nankai University in Tianjin who researches China’s innovation economy.

“We are picking a path where we lower the costs for innovation and industrialization,” he said. “When many can do things with a comparable quality, whoever makes it more cheaply will have a bigger chance to win.”

Liu added that Wang’s placement at the Xi symposium last month — near tech titans like Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei and closer to Xi than Alibaba founder Jack Ma — also underscored the company’s centrality in an important industry for Beijing.

“We can see Wang as a representative of China’s robotics and AI industry,” both fields that the government has singled out as important drivers of economic growth, Liu said.

But Unitree’s relationship with the state — in particular, with the military — has generated controversy. Chinese state television broadcast a video last year of a Unitree robot dog mounted with a gun participating in a China-Cambodia joint military exercise.

The robot dog “can serve as a new member in our urban combat operations, replacing our members to conduct reconnaissance and identify enemies,” Chen Wei, a Chinese soldier, said in the video segment.

Despite this state-backed publicity, Unitree has denied selling to the Chinese military. The company has also signed a pledge, alongside five other leading global robotics firms such Boston Dynamics, not to weaponize its technology.

The U.S. military has started to incorporate robotics as well, including using four-legged robots in a joint exercise with South Korea last week, according to local media.

But some think the U.S. isn’t moving fast enough — especially with China’s advances. Sen. Katie Boyd Britt (R-Alabama) and Jacob Helberg, nominated by President Donald Trump for a senior position at the State Department, have warned about the military implications of Chinese humanoid robots.

“The U.S. military is exploring ways to incorporate humanoids into modern warfare, but China has already deployed armed robotics to the battlefield,” they wrote in the Wall Street Journal in September, specifically mentioning Unitree. “If the U.S. falls further behind in such critical technology, our troops will face fatal disadvantages on the battlefield.”

Wang, however, seems less focused on the details of how his robots may be used today and more on a future when robots can help humanity escape the tedium of everyday life.

“I have always hoped that robots can liberate people from manual labor and truly help humans solve some boring tasks,” he said in an interview broadcast last month by Phoenix TV, a Chinese television network.

“In the future, everyone can do whatever they want,” he added. “If they want to work, they can continue to work; if they don’t want to work, they can go out to have fun.”