China

Intelligence for Better Decision Making

Shanghai Robotics Summit Showcases Breakthroughs in Humanoid Automation and Industry Investment
Dec. 11, 2025 | Technology & Innovation

The 2025 Global Developers Pioneers Summit and International Embodied Intelligence Skills Competition will gather industry leaders in Shanghai from December 12 to 14 to showcase and evaluate cutting-edge robotics in simulated real-world scenarios.

**The summit features six major tracks and 17 distinct events centered on embodied intelligence, with challenges spanning industrial production and life skills.**
Industrial tasks include moving goods and tightening screws, while life skill scenarios require robots to arrange flowers, fold clothes, and make coffee. These activities unfold in homes, hospitals, and disaster-relief environments, with judges assessing both technical performance and humanistic care.

**Aoyi Technology will supply 30 high-performance dexterous robot hands—critical for humanoid robots operating in complex urban and industrial settings.**
Aoyi’s technical team will provide on-site support as the hands undergo intensive testing, feeding operational lessons directly into future product iterations.

**Humanoid Robot (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. will enter its full-size general-purpose humanoid robot, Qinglong, in the home service track.**
Built on open-source hardware and software platforms, Qinglong will tackle tasks such as folding clothes and tidying tableware to reveal challenges in model generalization and robustness across varied domestic environments.

Shanghai Zhuoyide Robot Co., Ltd. will challenge its precision motion-control systems in the flower-arranging event, using performance data from the competition to advance research and development in high-precision robotic manipulation.

**In the industrial sector, Shanghai Kepler Robot Co., Ltd. will deploy its “blue-collar humanoid robot” team to demonstrate autonomous, flexible logistics handling.**
Key capabilities include dynamic environment adaptation, heavy-load management, dual-arm coordination, and extended operation hours supported by proprietary components and algorithms. Kepler views the competition as a stress test for its technology’s commercial viability.

**Qinglang Intelligent will present its XMAN-R1 service robot, backed by extensive deployment experience.**
In 2024, Qinglang holds a 22.7% share of the global commercial service-robot market, with over 100,000 units operating in more than 600 cities. The firm will use the competition to validate its robots’ reliability and practicality in complex, realistic scenarios.

**Rongtai Electric Material announced a USD 77 million investment to build a factory in Thailand producing insulation components for new energy vehicles and robotic parts by end of 2026.**
The facility will manufacture 14,000 tons of mica paper, 4,500 tons of mica products, and seven million sets of robotic components annually. After the announcement, Rongtai’s shares rose over 7% in early trading before closing up 1.1%, outperforming the Shanghai Composite Index. Rongtai already supplies mica insulation to Tesla, Volkswagen, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz, and in June acquired a 51% stake in Shanghai-based Dizi Precision Machinery—specialists in planetary roller screw products used in humanoid robots—positioning itself to enter the precision transmission component market for robotics.
China’s Chip Export Surge Drives Foreign Trade Rebound amid US Tariffs
Dec. 11, 2025 | Technology & Innovation

China’s chip industry is fueling export growth as broader foreign trade rebounds amid tensions with the United States.

**In November 2025, China recorded a 5.9 percent year-on-year increase in exports to USD 330.3 billion, reversing October’s 1.1 percent decline.**
Strong shipments of integrated circuits and automobiles, alongside a lower comparative base from the previous year, drove this export rebound. Imports rose 1.9 percent to USD 218.7 billion, bringing total foreign trade to USD 549 billion, a 4.3 percent year-on-year gain.

**Integrated circuits led sectoral growth with a 34 percent jump in export value, while car exports surged 53 percent compared with November 2024.**
Analysts attribute these gains to China’s ongoing manufacturing transformation and a global upswing in investment linked to artificial intelligence technologies.

**Exports to the United States plunged 28.6 percent to USD 33.8 billion, widening from October’s 25.2 percent drop, as US tariffs averaging 31 percent continued to curb shipments.**
By contrast, China expanded exports to other major markets: the European Union bought 14.8 percent more, Japan 4.3 percent more, and South Korea 1.9 percent more.

**Exports to ASEAN countries rose 8.2 percent to USD 58.1 billion, though growth slowed from October’s 11 percent increase.**
Observers link this deceleration to reduced re-exports following US tariff hikes on certain ASEAN member exports.

**In the first eleven months of 2025, China’s total foreign trade grew 2.9 percent to USD 5.7 trillion.**
Over the same period, exports climbed 5.4 percent to USD 3.4 trillion, while imports edged down 0.6 percent to USD 2.3 trillion.

Monitored Intelligence for China - Dec. 12, 2025


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Erudite Risk takes an all risks approach to intelligence reporting. We categorize key intelligence into one of 40 different risk intelligence categories.

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(投资中国)丰隆集团执行主席:加码中国科创正逢“黄金窗口期”

(Investing in China) Executive Chairman of Fullon Group: Increasing Investment in China's Sci-Tech Innovation Hits a Golden Window Period

China Daily | Local Language | News | Dec. 12, 2025 | UndeterminedTech Development/Adoption

Guo Lingming, Executive Chairman of Singapore Fullon Group, emphasized that the current period is a "golden window" for global capital to invest in China's sci-tech innovation industries. Fullon Xinghe recently signed a cooperation agreement with the Shanghai Sci-Tech Fund, planning to invest 500 million RMB through a Qualified Foreign Limited Partner (QFLP) fund, marking a formal entry into China’s tech sector.

Guo highlighted the strategic importance of this cooperation, citing China’s push for technological self-reliance and a favorable, increasingly open investment environment. He expressed confidence in China’s long-term market fundamentals, driven by strong endogenous forces in hard technology, AI, new energy, and biomedicine, supported by improving policies and established trust from past engagements.

The company’s future investment focus includes four strategic emerging industries: artificial intelligence and high-end software/hardware, new energy and new materials, biomedicine and precision medicine, and semiconductors and high-end manufacturing. These sectors align with Fullon's existing operations and offer robust growth prospects for the next 10-20 years.

Additionally, Guo pointed to Shanghai’s strengths in institutional transparency, efficiency, openness, and its dual focus on sci-tech innovation and finance as key factors encouraging foreign investment. He urged more entrepreneurs, especially from Singapore, to engage with the Chinese market and its companies to capitalize on these opportunities.

Civil drone standards to bolster industry

China Daily | English | News | Dec. 12, 2025 | Regulation

China’s State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) has introduced two compulsory national standards for civil drones, set to take effect on May 1, 2026. The standards focus on real-name registration and activation of civil UAVs, and operational identification systems, aiming to clearly identify operators and enable real-time monitoring of drones during flight.

The real-name registration standard sets requirements for registrants, management, data exchange, and mandates that drones cannot fly before activation or after deactivation. The operational identification standard requires drones to automatically transmit identity, location, speed, and status information to regulators throughout their flight, facilitating better management of drone activities.

These measures respond to rapid growth in drone usage in China, with 2.726 million drones registered by mid-2025, a 74.7% year-on-year increase, and 24.47 million cumulative flight hours recorded in the first half of 2025, a 149% rise compared to the previous year. The standards also support the enforcement of China’s Interim Regulations for Managing UAV Flight, which took effect on January 1, 2024, establishing a comprehensive regulatory framework for drone production, operation, and supervision.

经济大省挑大梁·高手在“民”间|“三头六臂”,诠释何以“新沪商”

Economic Powerhouses Taking the Lead · Experts Among the People | Three Heads and Six Arms Explaining What Makes a New Shanghai Businessman

China Daily | Local Language | News | Dec. 12, 2025 | UndeterminedEconomic Growth

Artificial intelligence technology is rapidly advancing, and Shanghai aims to lead in AI development and governance by fostering a large-model industrial ecosystem. During a 2025 visit to Shanghai’s MoSu Space innovation community, General Secretary Xi Jinping encouraged innovation and praised young people’s role in the AI sector. Fourier Intelligent Technology, a decade-old Shanghai startup, exemplifies this ambition with its humanoid robots GR-1 and GR-2, showcasing China’s progress in robotics and AI.

Fourier's origins trace back to 2003 and were shaped by the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake’s challenges, which exposed the high cost and dependence on foreign rehabilitation robots in China. Founded in 2015, Fourier focused on affordable domestic rehabilitation robots, overcoming technical obstacles like cable-driven designs to improve patient training experiences. By 2021, Fourier’s products covered 80% of clinical rehabilitation scenarios in China, earning founder Gu Jie recognition as the maker of China’s “Iron Man.”

The company emphasizes not just hardware but also integrated soft services, such as on-site guidance to hospitals and biomechanical analysis systems, helping over 2,000 medical institutions domestically and abroad. Fourier’s humanoid robots have expanded into eldercare and rehabilitation roles, seen as friendly and effective human-machine interactions, reinforcing the company’s mission of empowering life through robotics.

Fourier’s growth benefited from patient capital investments, especially from Zhangjiang incubators and key partners, along with supportive policies and talent attraction initiatives in Pudong New Area. Its approach synergizes innovation with practical application, aiming for reliable, accessible robotics that genuinely improve human life. This model underscores the rise of a new generation of Shanghai businessmen who combine technological rigor, entrepreneurial resilience, and social value.

Beyond Fourier, Shanghai’s private sector demonstrates dynamism across AI, biomedicine, and industrial services. Companies like SenseTime, MiniMax, and Xijing Technology lead global innovation, while the city’s private economy contributed 1.63 trillion yuan in 2024, with a 10.2% increase in imports and exports. Shanghai fosters a robust business environment with deep industrial clusters, nurturing “new Shanghai businessmen” who embody reform, openness, cooperation, and a decade-long pursuit of excellence aligned with the responsibilities of the new era.

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