“China is embracing robotics with the same full-on intensity that’s made it a force in high-speed rail and renewable energy,” reports Businessweek (May 1-7, 2017). Beijing economic planners view it as a stepping stone to a broader strategic goal: dominating emerging markets for artificial intelligence, driver-less vehicles and digitally-connected appliances and homes.
Standing in the way are established robotics superpowers like Japan, South Korea, Germany and the U.S. Yet China has three big advantages–scale, growth momentum and money. It’s home to the world’s fastest-growing robotics market and vast manufacturing sector where companies are under pressure to automate. China overtook Japan in 2013 in unit sales domestically. Guangdong province, for example, announced in 2015 plans to offer $137 billion in subsidies to 2,000 local companies that are looking to automate their plants. In 2016, China installed 90,000 new robots. That’s 1/3 of the world total and 30% more than the year before.
China still lags rival nations when it comes to robot adoption. It had only 49 robots per 10,000 workers in 2015, versus 176 for the U.S., Germany’s 301 and South Korea’s world-leading 531. Yet if China’s robot build-out succeeds, it may be able to stanch the flow of factories moving overseas to escape the mainland’s rising manufacturing wages, which have more than doubled in the past decade.
Demand for robots in China is clear enough. Less certain is whether Chinese robotics companies have the tech savvy to compete globally. Some 800 Chinese robotics companies have set up shop. But many startups buy key components from Germany’s Siemens or Japan’s Fanuc (the world’s #1 robot maker), put them in a robot shell with an arm, and then slap on a Chinese brand name.
Classroom discussion questions:
- What is driving the robot revolution in China?
- Will this impact manufacturing jobs in the U.S?