In 2014, Xi Jinping laid out his vision for the future of robotics in China. “We must not only improve the level of our robots, but also capture as much of the market as possible,” he said.
A decade on, China’s robotics industry is catching up to foreign rivals. China’s industrial robots market is the world’s largest and Chinese companies now supply about half of domestic demand, up from less than a third five years ago, according to the International Federation of Robotics.
The trend is likely to continue accelerating. Yet despite global recognition of China’s growing robotics prowess, many of the country’s top firms and their leaders are not well known.
In this latest Who’s Who edition of industry leaders, The Wire China identifies the industrialists, entrepreneurs and academics responsible for advancing China’s robotics industry, compiled from corporate documents, company and government statements, and media reports.
Those included range from the heads of China’s oldest industrial robotics firms to leaders of a new wave of startups developing humanoids and robodogs, as well as the academics and policymakers paving the way for the industry’s development. We have chosen to represent a broad swath of the industry, not including firms that specialize in drones or autonomous vehicles.
The 52 people below differ from their peers in China’s artificial intelligence sector even though they are closely linked via a discipline known as ‘embodied AI,’ or the integration of AI into hardware. Less than half of the people on this list hold doctorates, and only a quarter earned their highest degree abroad. In The Wire’s previous review of the movers and shakers in China’s AI industry, four in five people held PhDs and half were educated overseas.
As with AI, robotics is male-dominated; no women appear on this list. Where possible, we have included the ages of people represented, who range from their early 30s to early 90s.
Of the 50 companies and universities represented here, 4 are blacklisted in some form by the U.S; they have a ‘⛔’ next to their name. Though a bipartisan group of politicians in Washington have raised national security alarms over Chinese robotics firms, President Donald Trump has not yet addressed the issue.
Read on for more information, or click the button below to download a PDF version of this page. The Wire is grateful to Kyle Chan, Reyk Knuhtsen and Lian Jye Su for their comments.
