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At a humanoid robot competition in China last month, machines jumped, boxed and danced while spectators cheered their improving abilities and laughed at their spectacular stumbles. Two days later, the People’s Liberation Army’s official newspaper drew a more serious lesson, calling for faster movement of advanced technologies from laboratories to military training grounds for robotic “combatants.”

A Reuters review of more than 100 Chinese military procurement notices, academic studies, patents, official publications, government records and defense-company materials found that China’s defense establishment is accelerating work on the military use of humanoid robots. Military institutions are testing the machines against battlefield requirements, seeking robots and related technologies for training, and studying how humanoids might operate alongside troops. The research gained momentum in 2025 and 2026, focusing on perception, manipulation and training data.

The effort draws strength from China’s commercial dominance. Chinese manufacturers accounted for about 95% of global humanoid shipments in 2025, according to BofA Global Research. That gives the PLA access to an expanding industrial base as it develops military applications. The work also reflects wider military interest in autonomous systems, a shift accelerated by the use of semiautonomous drones and logistics and casualty-retrieval robots in the Russia-Ukraine war.

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Going where we don’t want humans to go is one of the most compelling reasons to develop robots in the first place.

“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 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 did not respond to requests for comment.

Reuters found no evidence that China has deployed an armed humanoid with an operational PLA unit. The machines remain energy-intensive and unreliable outside controlled demonstrations. Aaron Johnson, a Carnegie Mellon University professor, said battlefield conditions introduce unpredictable variables that challenge robots’ abilities. China nevertheless already has a vision for using humanoids, robot dogs and unmanned vehicles in urban warfare, including a proposed six-robot combat force.

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If losing a robot means avoiding the loss of a human life, then the robot can become expendable.