Why World Leaders Are Making a Beeline for Zhejiang

Zhejiang has become the hottest stop on any foreign leader's China itinerary. In just over three months — from late February to early June this year — German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, and Lao Party General Secretary and President Thongloun Sisoulith all made Zhejiang a core part of their visits. 

That so many are arriving in delegations says something. Zhejiang has quietly become a magnet for those chasing the future — in industry, in the digital economy, in how development itself gets reimagined. 

Zhejiang has recently become an absolute must-visit destination for foreign leaders touring China.

Every single one of their itineraries featured a moment with robots. That recurring scene has become a signature of Zhejiang's diplomatic circuit. Chancellor Merz — the first foreign leader to visit China this year — flew directly from Beijing to Hangzhou. 

Merz‘s first stop was the new headquarters of Unitree Robotics in Binjiang District. In the exhibition hall, humanoid robots performed martial arts. When the "Wu BOT" — a robot featured in the Spring Festival Gala — completed high-difficulty jumps and flips, Merz was the first to applaud, nodding continuously.

In the components display area, the Chancellor from the "nation of engineers" picked up one of the robot's rubber "shoes" and rubbed it in his hands, examining it like a precision craft. The dozens of German corporate executives accompanying him raised their phones to film the demonstrations. One guest even took a robot's hand and danced a waltz. The whole scene looked like a massive, collective industry factory tour.

China's first visiting foreign leader this year, Merz flew straight from Beijing to Hangzhou — first stop: Unitree Robotics.

Serbian President Vučić drove to Minth Group's future factory in Jiaxing. At the entrance, five Agibot Lingxi X2 humanoid robots stood in a row, hands on hips, dancing gracefully to traditional Serbian Kolo music. Vučić later wrote on social media: “They dance better than me.”

Vučić watched quadruped robots conduct inspections, humanoid robots write calligraphy, mix cocktails, and perform Chinese martial arts. He marveled: This place is like the 22nd century. He then revealed that Serbia plans to partner with Agibot and Minth to build Europe's first large-scale humanoid robot production base, with mass production expected to begin between 2026 and 2027.

Serbian President Vučić at the Minth Group's future factory in Jiaxing.

Serbian President Vučić at the Minth Group's future factory in Jiaxing.

Lao President Thongloun chose to visit Deep Robotics — one of Hangzhou's "Six Little Dragons." He watched both humanoid and quadruped robots demonstrate their capabilities, then operated a quadruped robot himself via remote control. When a humanoid robot waved to welcome him, a beaming Thongloun waved back. When the robot handed him a gift, he said three clear words in Mandarin: "Xie xie ni" — thank you.

Lao President Thongloun chose to visit Deep Robotics – one of Hangzhou's "Six Little Dragons."

The numbers tell the story. Last year, Zhejiang's total robotics industry output reached 70.71 billion yuan. Industrial robot production hit 72,900 units — a 36.4% year-on-year increase. The province has also cultivated 20 national-level typical application scenarios in areas such as smart eldercare and digital healthcare. Zhejiang-made robots, led by companies like Deep Robotics, have accelerated their overseas expansion, landing in Europe, the Americas, Southeast Asia, Japan, and South Korea.

If robots showcase Zhejiang's hard-core innovation, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz's visit spotlighted its soft power in the digital economy. Shehbaz braved the rain to head straight to Alibaba's Hangzhou headquarters as his first stop in China. His focus: the digital economy that Alibaba represents.

At the negotiation table in Hangzhou, the blueprint Shehbaz outlined had moved far beyond the railways, highways, and airports that dominated China-Pakistan cooperation for decades. He described a far grander digital ecosystem: AI digital training for 10,000 Pakistani small and medium-sized enterprises to connect them with global buyers; a "digital foundation" adapted to the local Urdu language; and the introduction of medical AI to address a shortage of imaging doctors.

During the visit, Alibaba International Station, Daraz, Alibaba Cloud, and DAMO Academy signed agreements with Pakistani institutions including the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority, the National Technology Fund, and cloud computing company Sky47. Shehbaz also attended the China-Pakistan B2B Investment Summit in Hangzhou. He framed the shift memorably: "Our friendship goes back to the days of silk road, when goods were transported through mules and camels and donkeys. Today here we are. Everything is now being operated through digitalization. And China excels in this field more than any other country in the world." He expressed his hope to build Pakistan into the "little China" of the region.

Zhejiang's appeal runs deeper than any single industry showcase. As a powerhouse of the private economy, the province has nurtured over two million Zhejiang merchants — the Zheshang — now spread across more than 180 countries and regions. This is the "sweet potato economy": the tubers take root and grow strong locally, while the vines stretch across the globe. The result is a cohort of Zhejiang enterprises with formidable internationalization capabilities.

Minth Group entered Serbia as early as 2018 and has since built 10 factories there. During Vučić's visit to Jiaxing, Minth, Shanghai Huizhong, and two other enterprises signed investment agreements with Serbia, adding over 900 million euros in new investment.

Zhejiang is also China's trailblazing province for common prosperity. Its urban residents' per capita disposable income has ranked first among all Chinese provinces and autonomous regions for 25 consecutive years; for rural residents, that figure stretches to 41 consecutive years. The province is also China's first ecological province.

During his visit, Lao President Thongloun made a special trip to Yucun village in Anji — the birthplace of the concept that "lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets" — as well as the local homestay community, Xiaoyin Banri Village. He went there to learn about rural revitalization and green development. 

In every village he visited, Thongloun set aside time to chat with villagers and homestay owners. Lao Ambassador to China Somphone said in an interview that China's development experience in areas like poverty eradication is highly useful to the world, and that Laos will base its efforts on its own national conditions to adapt the experiences learned in China.

From Merz giving a thumbs-up to robots at Unitree Robotics, to Vučić declaring in Jiaxing that "this place is like the 22nd century," to Thongloun saying "thank you" in Mandarin to a Deep Robotics machine — these vivid moments are decades of hard work made visible. Zhejiang has arrived. It now serves as a brand-new window onto China's new quality productive forces. As Vučić stated before leaving, he would undoubtedly return to Zhejiang with joy, as everything he had witnessed there had left him deeply astounded.

Mao Paishou

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Eight robots walked onto one of America's biggest stages — and left the judges speechless. On the evening of June 2 (local time), 26-year-old Wu Yufei from Sichuan took the stage on the popular US show America's Got Talent (AGT) alongside eight Unitree robots. Their human–robot dance performance stunned the judges, who exclaimed "This is crazy!" It earned a standing ovation from the audience and secured unanimous approval to advance.

Wu Yufei walked onto the stage alone at first, with the audience unaware of what was coming. As the music began, a group of robots slowly stepped into the center of the stage — leaving viewers with puzzled expressions.

NBC described the atmosphere as one of "uneasy curiosity." In present days, a group of robots marching in synchronized formation still carries a faintly unsettling charge. But once the music kicked in, the Unitree robots completely won over the crowd.

Set to Lady Gaga's "Abracadabra," the eight Unitree robots and Wu Yufei danced in perfect sync. The choreography was unified and precise, the movements fluid and controlled, and the routine even featured jaw-dropping flips. The robots' accuracy was astonishing — yet it never overshadowed the exceptional skill of the one human on stage. Chinese robotics technology has clearly come a long way: when deployed effectively, robots can command the AGT stage every bit as powerfully as human performers.

The judges were visibly stunned. Cameras repeatedly cut to them wide-mouthed, struggling to process what was unfolding on stage. When the performance ended, the audience erupted into cheers. Judge Simon Cowell said: "They don't look human, but they're all staring at me right now. That was nuts, but brilliant. Brilliant."

As of June 5, the performance clip on the show's official YouTube channel has surpassed 1 million views and received 31,000 likes.

Judge Sofía Vergara was equally effusive. "I've never seen anything like this because usually those robots are like, very weird. These ones have rhythm. It was like watching people dance — and you are amazing; the way you dance is spectacular." In the end, the Unitree robots advanced to the next round with the unanimous approval of every judge on the panel.

The Sichuan-born dancer leading the Unitree robots is no ordinary performer. Wu Yufei was born in April 1999 in Guanghan, Sichuan, and studied broadcasting and hosting at Sichuan University of Media and Communications. He competed on Street Dance of China 2 and won the 2018 World Elite Dance Finals championship. Specializing in street dance — particularly "bone-breaking dance" and popping — he is widely regarded as China's foremost performer in bone-breaking dance.

The style, also known as contortion-style dance, exploits extreme joint flexibility to create visually striking movements that appear to defy normal human anatomy, giving the illusion of bones actually snapping.

America's Got Talent is one of the most popular TV programs in the United States, drawing a large audience since its debut in 2006. Nielsen data shows the previous season averaged nearly 6 million viewers per episode. For many ordinary Americans, this Unitree appearance was their first close-up look at China's humanoid robotics technology.

The virality was instant. After the broadcast, related clips spread rapidly across social media. As of June 5, the performance video on the show's official YouTube channel had surpassed 1 million views and received 31,000 likes.

Washington's response, however, was swift and hostile. Just one day after the Unitree robots appeared on the show, three US lawmakers jointly introduced the bipartisan "Guarding Against Adversarial Robot Domination Act" (GUARD Act), proposing to ban Chinese robots from entering the US market.

Unitree Robotics is already building its global footprint. According to the South China Morning Post, the company currently sells humanoid robots overseas via Alibaba's AliExpress platform, with North America, Europe, and Japan as key expansion markets. On June 1, Unitree also announced a partnership with NVIDIA to launch the Isaac GR00T humanoid robot reference platform — based on Unitree's H2 robot — targeting universities and research institutions.

Kyle Chan, a China technology researcher at the Brookings Institution, believes the AGT appearance was likely a calculated move to build brand visibility against mounting US government scrutiny. "Washington often blocks Chinese tech products that are actually popular with the American public, such as DJI drones and TikTok," he said. The reality is that Unitree is playing the same game its predecessors did — winning hearts before regulators move in.

But the road ahead is not without obstacles. Shanghai-based tech consultant Lu Shengyun cautioned that while the performance may impress first-time viewers of Chinese humanoid robots, Chinese robotics firms still face real challenges in overseas expansion. These include limited application scenarios, insufficient data resources, and a lack of overseas partners and integrators capable of providing localized validation, maintenance, and calibration services.

Back in Washington, the political accusations are escalating. John Moolenaar, Chairman of the US House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party and a Republican congressman, has accused Chinese robots of posing a "national security threat" to the United States. He has even publicly singled out Unitree Robotics, claiming that Chinese companies are exploring the "weaponization of humanoid robots."