China Accelerates Military Use of Humanoid Robots, Eyes Combat Deployment
By Eduardo Baptista
China’s Advancements and Strategic Vision for Humanoid Robots in Warfare
BEIJING, Sept 7 (Reuters) - At the World Humanoid Robot Games in China last month, robots jumped, boxed and danced. Some fleet-footed bots ran faster than Usain Bolt over 100 meters. Spectators cheered the machines’ improving capabilities and their meme-worthy stumbles.
Two days after the Games ended, the People's Liberation Army's official newspaper drew its own conclusions from the show. The PLA Daily called for researchers to accelerate the transfer of cutting-edge technologies from laboratories to military training grounds for robotic “combatants.”
China's defense establishment is accelerating research into humanoids’ military uses and planning for their eventual wartime deployment, according to a Reuters review of more than 100 Chinese military procurement notices, academic studies, patents, official publications, government records and defense-company materials.
Military institutions are testing humanoids against battlefield requirements, seeking to acquire robots and technologies to train them, and studying how they might function alongside troops, the previously unreported records show. The work gained momentum in 2025 and 2026, focusing on robot perception, manipulation, and training data.
Chinese manufacturers accounted for about 95% of global humanoid shipments in 2025, according to BofA Global Research. That commercial dominance gives the PLA access to an expanding industry while developing its own military applications.
Global Military Technology Evolution
China’s robot defense research underscores how rapidly military technologies are evolving globally. In the Russia-Ukraine war, semiautonomous drones that use artificial intelligence for navigation and targeting have transformed reconnaissance and attack, while robots carry supplies and retrieve casualties. Reuters has previously documented the Chinese military’s efforts to learn from Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II.
That evolution is driving worldwide military interest in autonomous systems.
“Going where we don’t want humans to go is one of the most compelling reasons to develop robots in the first place,” said Dennis Hong, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at UCLA. “If losing a robot means avoiding the loss of a human life, then the robot can become expendable.”
China's defense ministry and the National University of Defense Technology (NUDT), the PLA’s premier research institution, didn’t respond to requests for comment about humanoid robots’ military applications.
Current Limitations and Challenges
Reuters found no evidence that China has deployed an armed humanoid with an operational PLA unit. The robots remain energy-intensive and unreliable outside controlled demonstrations. Battlefield environments pose many variables and challenge robots’ abilities in unpredictable ways, said Aaron Johnson, a professor of mechanical engineering at Carnegie Mellon University.
Urban Warfare: The Next Frontier
Urban Assault Force Vision
URBAN ASSAULT FORCE
Already, China has a vision for humanoid robots in urban warfare.
Six “combat robots” – humanoids, robot dogs or unmanned vehicles – would be split up between two assault teams. Working with ground troops, the robots would clear an enemy-occupied building, floor-by-floor and room-by-room.
Research and Projections
That scenario was described in an August 2025 paper by researchers at NUDT’s test center in Xi’an. The study modeled an urban assault force using equipment the authors projected could be available within five to 10 years. It didn’t specify the robots’ rules of engagement, the weapons they would carry, nor how they would handle civilian encounters.
Improvements in balance, perception and endurance could make humanoids useful in places including buildings, tunnels and ship interiors, said Juo-Min Chou, a researcher at Taiwan's Institute for National Defense and Security Research. “Their two hands and two feet could, in theory, combine mobility, climbing and manipulation,” she said.
Comparisons with Other Robotic Platforms
For simpler reconnaissance or logistics missions, however, quadruped, tracked or wheeled robots would generally be cheaper and easier to deploy at scale, Chou added.
Expanding Roles and International Competition
Chinese military commentary envisions an expanding range of roles for humanoids. A July 2025 article in PLA Daily argued that humanoid missions could eventually evolve "from supporting combat toward primary combat" and discussed how robots might be authorized to fire on a living target that had been verified by a human.
In December, the PLA Eastern Theater Command released an AI-generated montage that showed military robots, including humanoids and quadrupeds, overwhelming Taiwan's defenses in a hypothetical future conflict.
U.S. Military Initiatives
China isn’t alone in exploring battlefield uses for humanoids. Last year, the U.S. Army launched a competition to develop “militarized humanoid capabilities” that could eventually work alongside soldiers. The Army said potential roles included reconnaissance, security, obstacle clearing, hazardous-material operations and offensive and defensive missions in urban terrain. Up to 10 finalists were due to test their systems with U.S. military experts this year, with as much as $1.25 million available for follow-on contracts.
The U.S. robotics industry, however, trails far behind China in developing two-legged and four-legged machines. Reuters reported last month that China’s Unitree robots – among the world’s leading producers of humanoids and quadrupeds – based designs for its best-selling robot dogs on innovations financed by the U.S. military.
The Pentagon and the U.S. Army didn’t comment for this story.
Historical Context and Growing Interest
Early Developments and Forums
INFILTRATING ENEMY LINES
Chinese interest in humanoid robots’ military applications began to pick up in 2024. That year, NUDT and China’s Academy of Military Sciences hosted a defense-technology forum that included a session on military applications for humanoid systems, according to NUDT’s website. Neither
