China's rapid robotics development transforms surgical procedures, improves mobility, productivity

AI-powered robots are having a transformative effect across various sectors in China but they are now playing a pivotal role in saving lives, with their advanced ability and precision proving crucial in highly-complex medical situations and surgical procedures.

With rapid adoption and government support, China has become the world's most important testing grounds for AI robotics with a number of notable breakthroughs being seen in recent months.

While the robots are already known for wide-ranging uses such as helping boost productivity in Chinese factories, the highly-developed robots are now being deployed in the healthcare and medical sector, where their high accuracy is being trusted by surgeons to help complete challenging operations.

Dr. Fan Shicai at the Third Affiliated Hospital of Southern Medical University in south China's Guangzhou City said a Chinese robot can perform complex orthopedic surgeries much faster and with striking precision. A procedure that once took five hours can now be done in just 30 minutes.

"You can match the scale exactly. It’s accurate to 0.1 millimeters," he said.

The benefits are already being felt by patients like Ms. Wu, who underwent emergency surgery after a traffic accident crushed her pelvis. Thanks to this less-invasive, robot-assisted surgery, she may now be able to go home just a few days after the procedure.

"I felt fine after the surgery. Just three days later, I feel full of energy again," she said.

The global market for surgical robots is booming and is expected to hit 60 billion U.S. dollars by 2030, highlighting the vast potential for growth.

The industry's development is welcome news for China's healthcare sector, where the demand for operations is high given the size of the population. But with these robots being expensive, switching from imported to domestic models in the long run will also help cut costs.

"This one is imported, but we also have domestic models – and they are very good. Patients pay more - around 20,000 yuan extra. But they heal faster," said Liu Cundong, director of Urology of the hospital.

Now, training centers are helping doctors across southern China to master the new technology.

"Some local hospitals rarely handle complex surgeries. But with robotic aid, their doctors can operate like seasoned specialists," said Li Cheng, director of the Third Affiliated Hospital of the Southern Medical University.

Robotic technology is saving more lives than ever, and they may also help keep us out of hospitals altogether in the future through their various applications.

For instance, while normally climbing steep steps on mountains wears you out, a hiking-assist exoskeleton may ease the strain on your joints, with these wearable devices now becoming smarter and lighter.

A top-of-the-range exoskeleton can weigh as little as two kilograms and, more importantly, it can be packed with smart censors that track your every move, providing support in real time.

With dual batteries, it has enough power to complete 20,000 steps and is also expected to have huge potential for uses in warehouses, firefighting, and in physical therapy.

This tech also offers another feasible longer-term solution to assist China's aging population. By the end of 2024,the country had over 310 million people aged 60 and above, with around 35 million facing mobility issues, which is why the government is encouraging the use of exoskeletons in elder care.

Elsewhere, the emergence of humanoid robots could prove a game-changer in the jobs which are deemed too dangerous, repetitive, or unpredictable for humans. From building cars to saving lives, these robots aren't just solving China’s challenges — they’re collecting the training data that could boost productivity worldwide.

One such example comes at the ZEEKR Intelligent Factory in east China's Zhejiang Province, where the world's first solely humanoid team collaborate across tasks in a real factory setting. Developed by the UBTech Robotics based in southern China's Shenzhen City, the robots learn on the job, and talk to their teammates via an advanced AI "brain network."

It's believed this innovation could help fill a significant labor shortage in the manufacturing sector, where such robots can take on repetitive tasks or carry out risky inspections.

Amid their rapid development, many insiders expect these robots will soon be on par with their human counterparts, and without the need to eat or sleep, it may only be a matter of time before we are overtaken.

"Humanoids today can already run at 12 km per hour — enough to finish a half marathon. Our goal this year is 50 percent of human efficiency. Since robots don’t rest, they'll eventually outperform us," said Tan Min, chief brand officer of UBTech Robotics.

China's rapid robotics development transforms surgical procedures, improves mobility, productivity

A video featuring a former member of Unit 731, a notorious Japanese germ-warfare unit during World War II (WWII), was released on Thursday in northeast China's Harbin, revealing details of how the unit used meteorological data to conduct horrific bacterial experiments on human beings.

The video was released by the Exhibition Hall of Evidence of Crimes Committed by Unit 731 of the Japanese Imperial Army, in which former Unit 731 member Tsuruo Nishijima detailed how the unit used meteorological data to carry out a bacterial dispersal experiment.

The video was recorded in 1997 by Japanese scholar Fuyuko Nishisato and donated to the exhibition hall in 2019, according to the hall, which was built on the former site of the headquarters of Unit 731 in Harbin, the capital city of Heilongjiang Province.

Jin Shicheng, director of the Department of Publicity, Education and Exhibition of the exhibition hall, said that Nishijima joined Unit 731 in October 1938 and served in the unit's meteorological squad. The squad was not a simple observation section but rather an auxiliary force supporting the unit's field human experiments by measuring wind direction, wind speed, and other conditions to ensure optimal experimental results, according to Jin.

Nishijima confirmed in the footage that "the meteorological squad had to be present at every field experiment." He testified to the "rainfall experiments" conducted by Unit 731, which involved aircraft releasing bacterial agents at extremely low altitudes.

At a field-testing site in Anda City, Heilongjiang, Unit 731 aircraft descended to about 50 meters above the ground. They sprayed bacterial culture liquids onto "maruta" -- human test subjects -- who were tied to wooden stakes. Each experiment involved about 30 people, spaced roughly 5 meters apart. After the experiments, the victims were loaded into sealed trucks and transported back to the unit, where their symptoms and disease progression were recorded over a period of several days.

"Unit 731's bacterial weapons were dropped by aircraft from a height of 50 meters in the open air. Therefore, the meteorological squad needed to observe wind direction and speed, which directly affected the precision and accuracy of the bacterial weapons deployment," said Jin.

Nishijima recounted the harrowing experience of the human test subjects.

"They were fully aware that inhaling the substances would certainly lead to death, so they closed their eyes and held their breath to avoid breathing them in. Their resistance prevented the experiment from proceeding. To compel them to comply, they were forced at gunpoint to open their mouths and lift their heads," said Nishijima.

These experiments, disguised as "scientific research," were in fact systematic tests of biological warfare weapons conducted by the Japanese military. The data generated from these inhumane activities became "research findings" shared among the Japanese army medical school, the medical community, and the military at large.

"At that time, the entire Japanese medical community tacitly approved, encouraged, and even participated in the criminal acts of Unit 731. The unit comprised members from Japan's medical and academic sectors who served the Japanese war of aggression against China. Thus, Unit 731 was not just a military unit but represented an organized and systematic criminal enterprise operating from the top down," said Jin.

Unit 731 was a top-secret biological and chemical warfare research base established in Harbin as the nerve center for Japanese biological warfare in China and Southeast Asia during WWII.

At least 3,000 people were used for human experiments by Unit 731, and Japan's biological weapons killed more than 300,000 people in China.

Video offers details of Japan's germ-warfare crimes in northeast China