James Kynge

Okay.

This week, I'm looking again at humanoid robots.

Last year, humanoid robot sales in China rose.

are estimated to have totaled about 13,000.

So that means 13,000 humanoid robots sold over the entire year.

Now, we should remember that last year was the first year of mass production for humanoid robots in China, or for that matter, anywhere else in the world.

So my prediction is this year,

there will be around 30,000 humanoid robots sold in China.

That is obviously a significant increase.

And then by a year like 2030, that number is going to go up to about 400,000 units.

We're headed towards a very sharp trajectory in annual sales increases for humanoid robots.

It's going to become a robot nation by 2030, I think.

What about you, Alice?

What kind of prediction have you got?

And I'm James King.

Yeah, well, first of all, my first takeaway was, wow.

I mean, this really is, I would put it in the category of stunning news coming out of China.

I think it's certainly, in terms of shock value, it's certainly the biggest, the most shocking piece of news that I've seen in Xi Jinping's tenure that started way back in 2012, 2013.

I'm not saying it's the most consequential piece of news, but I think it is, it did shock me more than any other.

But the other important thing to say, I think, is about Chinese elite politics.