On a drizzly Saturday in Shenzhen’s Central Park, a group of teenage girls giggled and belted out Mandopop tunes, their laughter interrupted by the whir of technology. A drone, carrying freshly ordered food, hovered nearby, delivering dinner from a mall just a few kilometers away.

This air delivery system, operated by Meituan—the biggest food delivery service in China—demonstrates how robots are reshaping urban life. As the drone deposited the food into a secure compartment, it highlighted the growing presence of robotics and AI in society.

In a year marked by economic challenges and international tensions, China is intensifying its focus on robotics and AI to transform its future. Leaders see these technologies as crucial for bolstering military capabilities, addressing labor shortages, and igniting national pride.

As Premier Li Qiang advocates for unleashing the digital economy’s creativity, Guangdong Province—home to Shenzhen—invested 60 million yuan to foster innovation in AI, particularly in humanoid robotics.

Shenzhen is dubbed China’s drone capital for its lenient regulations, enabling rapid growth in the “low altitude economy.” Experts predict the drone market value will soar, escalating from 700 billion yuan to 3.5 trillion yuan in the next decade.

While drones continue to impress, humanoid robots are also making waves. The recent Spring Festival Gala showcased a spectacular dance performance by Unitree's humanoid robots, captivating nearly 17 billion viewers. In a groundbreaking event, a half marathon race pitted humans against humanoid robots in Beijing—ushering in a new era of competition.

Rui Ma, a tech analyst, notes that AI’s integration into robotics accelerated significantly last year. The adoption of reinforcement learning allows robots to evolve quickly, drastically shortening training times. This has led to innovations like toy robot dogs now a common sight in Chinese households.

China's robotics sector is tethered to its AI advancements, as the nation strives to narrow the tech gap with the U.S. Xi Jinping envisions a future powered by enhanced tech sagacity to drive sustainable economic growth.

The global tech landscape is currently abuzz with interest in a new large language model, R1, developed by a relatively obscure Chinese company, DeepSeek. Its effective yet cost-efficient design sparked a tectonic shift in investor confidence, slashing a staggering 1 trillion dollars off the U.S. tech market, signaling a potential shift in tech dominance.

DeepSeek's open-source approach has fostered a cooperative spirit within China’s tech ecosystem, rapidly enhancing the compatibility of robotics and AI. Despite the hurdles—particularly the need for vast datasets for AI training—there’s palpable enthusiasm across the industry.

China is actively pursuing automation to mitigate a dwindling labor force. Robots, whether wheeled or humanoid, are increasingly performing tasks ripe for mechanization, including dangerous jobs or monotonous factory work. In recent trade conferences, demonstrators showcased robot chefs making popular street food, while autonomous buggies navigated the public parks of Beijing.

Despite the turbulence, automation is daunting yet exciting; many experts agree that while robots may change certain roles, they are unlikely to replace the majority of jobs—at least for the time being. In cities like Shenzhen, Baidu’s fleets of autonomous taxis are slowly rolling out, but human-driven cabs still dominate the streets.

With economic pressures compelling the government to bolster successful sectors, technology has become an appealing avenue for investment. As the narrative shifts towards the promise of tech-driven growth, there’s an awakening optimism among entrepreneurs who faced scrutiny just a few years ago.

The recent revival of high-profile meetings between Xi Jinping and leading tech figures signifies a renewed faith in innovation and entrepreneurship in China, fueling hopes that the worst is behind them.