Booming robotics a platform to advanced manufacturing

The emerging robotics industry is booming in China. The move to advanced technology is aligned with the government strategy "Made in China 2025", which is aimed at upgrading China's manufacturing base. In turn, the development plan for the robotics industry, released in April, seeks to accelerate Chinese robotics with breakthrough products over the next five years.

Nevertheless, critics argue that the emergence of Chinese robotics industry is being sustained by subsidies doled out by local governments, and they question whether the industry would be able to survive on its own in the face of global competition.

China's robotics boom is often explained by rising costs and aging demographics. Yet, they are only part of the big picture. In the mainland, the robotics boom has been fueled by several forces, including demographics (growing engineering talent, the declining factory-age work force, and the aging work force), increasing costs (rising wages, costs of training and housing), and favorable financing (low*cost loans, factory incentives, investment by foreign tech giants that manufacture in China).