Humanoid robots perform advanced martial arts at Chinese New Year gala

Robots perform sophisticated human movements as Beijing sends a message to the world.Published On 17 Feb 2026China’s annual gala on Lunar New Year’s Eve has showcased Beijing’s giant leap in technology as humanoid robots took centre stage to perform a joint martial arts routine featuring several firsts.China’s Spring Festival Gala, which aired on Monday on state broadcaster CGTN, has gone viral, drawing nearly half a million views on YouTube.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemslist 1 of 4India’s hosts AI Impact Summit, drawing world leaders, tech giantslist 2 of 4‘An apocalypse’: Why are experts sounding the alarm on AI risks?list 3 of 4Can the US challenge China’s dominance in critical minerals?list 4 of 4Year of the Fire Horse: Can Lunar New Year festival boost China’s economy?end of listTwo dozen humanoid robots performed the world’s first continuous freestyle table-vaulting parkour, the first aerial flip, continuous single-leg flips, a two-step wall-assisted backflip, and the first 7.5-rotation Airflare grand spin, CGTN reported.The performance marked a stark contrast with last year’s show, when robots twirled handkerchiefs and performed simple movements.Four firms – Unitree, Magiclab, Galbot, and Noetix – partnered with the gala in deals reportedly worth about 100 million yuan ($14m), according to the China-morning-post" class="entity-link entity-organization" data-entity-id="12558" data-entity-type="organization">South China Morning Post.The first robots to appear were Noetix’s Bumi models, who performed a comedy sketch. Unitree’s robots later exhibited martial arts alongside child artists, including backflips and trampoline jumps, followed by Magiclab’s humanoids in a musical segment.Ramesh Srinivasan, an artificial intelligence policy specialist and lecturer at the University of California (UCLA), told Al Jazeera that Beijing is sending a clear “statement” about its capabilities to the world, and to its US rivals specifically.The performance highlighted China’s rapid progress in humanoid robotics, an area that sees its longer-term potential in industrial and agricultural applications as the country’s population steadily declines.