Chinese team conducts pioneering remote surgery between Beijing, Rome

An experienced Chinese medical team on Friday successfully completed a groundbreaking remote robotic surgical operation at a frontier practical conference.

Led by Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) academician Zhang Xu, also the urology department director at the Third Medical Center of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) General Hospital, the Chinese medical team carried out the operation simultaneously in Rome, capital of Italy and Beijing, capital of China.

The two places are about 8,100 kilometers apart, with the two-way communication distance exceeding 20,000 kilometers.

While Zhang was skillfully operating a self-developed remote surgical robot in Rome, in an operating room of the Third Medical Center of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) General Hospital, the surgical robot received remote information instructions from Zhang and executed them precisely on a prostate cancer patient to remove the lesion. "The biggest problem with a remote surgery is communication -- whether there is any delay. During today's surgery, there was almost no delay, and it was almost the same as an on-site surgery," said Zhang.

"To me, it was a really, a historical experience, a historical moment. The fact that he was able to do it in Rome makes us very, very happy," said Vito Pansadoro, chairman of Challenges in Laparoscopy, Robotics and AI, the frontier field conference.

Zhang said that the remote surgery is a systematic innovation brought about by the cross-integration of new technologies and new concepts, and is of great significance for remote treatment in future battlefield environments and disaster-stricken areas.

In the next step, China will apply the research direction to military field medical services to better protect officers and soldiers stationed in remote areas, according to Zhang.

"Through the remote surgery, we can project the most advanced medical resources to the front line in real time," Zhang said.

Chinese team conducts pioneering remote surgery between Beijing, Rome

Chinese team conducts pioneering remote surgery between Beijing, Rome

Chinese team conducts pioneering remote surgery between Beijing, Rome

Chinese team conducts pioneering remote surgery between Beijing, Rome

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠South China's Guangdong Province has seen its robot manufacturers lead the transition from sending out samples for trial use to fulfilling large-scale overseas orders as one of China's major hubs for foreign trade and smart equipment.

Since the start of 2026, domestically built robots have been given a major opportunity to expand on a large scale in global markets.

Notably, a dedicated customs tariff code for cleaning robots took effect in January, marking a significant step toward large-scale exports for the sector.

The momentum has remained strong in the second half of the year, with overseas orders continuing to grow.

The surge in demand is turning domestically built robots into a new growth engine for China's high-end equipment exports.

"Our overseas shipments are performing extremely well right now. Our cleaning robots are particularly popular in Europe, Japan, Republic of Korea, Southeast Asia and the Middle East. We have seen year-on-year doubling of growth compared with last year. We review production plans for the cleaning robots on a weekly and monthly basis, and shipping schedules are fully booked," said Gong Ziyu, head of CVTE's robotics business group.

"Robots can take over high-risk, high-pressure work, sustaining stable demand. Overseas orders are rising steadily, registering around 40 percent year-on-year growth compared with last year," said Huang Jian, executive of Guangdong Lingdu Intel-tech Development Co., Ltd.

Guangdong-made robots see expansion in overseas orders