In the outer reaches of Shanghai, one of the world’s most advanced robotics factories is being programmed into existence. By the end of 2022, across an area roughly the size of 12 football fields, humans will work alongside intelligent machines to build China’s future robotic workforce.
It sounds like something out of a science fiction film. Instead, it’s the culmination of Swiss-Swedish technology giant ABB’s "in China, for China and the world" strategy: to deliver top-end robots to the world’s hungriest automation market via an expanded, fully localized supply chain.
https://youtu.be/obSk2O0RDVY
A virtual tour of ABB's 'Factory of the Future' in Shanghai. Credit: ABB
The fact that ABB, the world’s second largest producer of industrial robots after Japanese leader FANUC, chose to build its most advanced production center in Shanghai is a testament to just how central China has become to the robotics industry. This is a relatively recent development — and
Exclusive longform investigative journalism, Q&As, news and analysis, and data on Chinese business elites and corporations. We publish China scoops you won't find anywhere else.
A weekly curated reading list on China from David Barboza, Pulitzer Prize-winning former Shanghai correspondent for The New York Times.
A daily roundup of China finance, business and economics headlines.
We offer discounts for groups, institutions and students. Go to our Subscriptions page for details.
Agribusiness giant Syngenta is unique on the world stage: it is a state-owned Chinese firm with an American CEO. After ChemChina's historic purchase of the company in 2017 — the largest ever purchase by a Chinese company overseas — Syngenta is now ready for its big China debut with a planned blockbuster IPO in Shanghai this fall. But while "modernizing" farming in China has been good for Syngenta's business, helping Beijing achieve its long-sought after goal of food self sufficiency will be more complicated feat.
The journalists and authors talk about what sets China's use of surveillance tech apart from other countries; how the building blocks of that tech came from the West; and how the surveillance state can be...
