
On April 19, a humanoid (人形的) robot set a new record in a half-marathon (半程马拉松) in Beijing. Developed by Chinese smartphone maker Honor, the robot finished the 21-kilometer race in 50 minutes and 26 seconds. It’s faster than the human record of 57 minutes and 20 seconds set by Uganda’s Jacob Kiplimo. This showed that China’s robotics industry is growing quickly. In 2025, about 17,000 humanoid robots were sold worldwide. Chinese companies made 14,000 of them, which was more than 80 percent of the total, according to China Daily.