The second World Humanoid Robot Games officially kicked off in Beijing on Saturday evening, featuring more than 1,000 humanoid robots in a spectacular opening ceremony that showcased the latest technological advances.
The five-day event brings together 666 teams and 2,056 robots from 16 countries to compete in 51 competition events.
Held at the National Speed Skating Oval, the ceremony featured musical performances, a parade of participating teams and robot formations, and the symbolic lighting of the Games' flame.
The evening opened with a musical prelude titled "Melody of the Future." Thirty-six humanoid robots, each with human-like five-finger dexterous hands, played a range of instruments alongside human musicians.
Beyond the artistry, the robots also demonstrated their competitive prowess in sports. In a unique showcase, they played football, ping pong, and tennis, competing in singles and mixed doubles matches with human partners.
One of the most breathtaking moments came during the parade, when formations of humanoid machines marched in perfect synchronization. Each robot independently calculated its path and dynamically adjusted its posture to stay in unison. Some even executed high-difficulty acrobatic stunts, including the "Thomas flair" gymnastics move.
As part of the Games, energy-transfer events and relay-like events for humanoid robots were held in locations both in China and abroad. The journey began at the Milan Winter Olympics and traveled through tea-picking fields in east China's Fujian, dragon boat races in southwest China's Sichuan, and horseback archery challenges in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in northwest China.
All the collected "energy" converged at the opening ceremony in Beijing, where a robot drew a bow and ignited the "Zhixin," or intelligence chip, the competition's equivalent of the Olympic flame, symbolically lighting the Games' flame.
The games are jointly hosted by the Beijing municipal government, China Media Group, the World Robot Cooperation Organization and the Asia-Pacific Robot World Cup International Council.
Organizers said the event is designed to promote technological exchange, industrial collaboration and the development of embodied intelligence.
2026 World Humanoid Robot Games opens in Beijing
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Saturday delivered a nationally televised address outlining Canada's position after trade talks with the United States broke down, announcing that Ottawa's "dollar-for-dollar" retaliatory tariffs on 20 billion U.S. dollars' worth of American goods would take effect on Sept 8.
The prime minister said the counter-tariffs will cover a wide range of sectors, including dairy, steel, appliances, pulp and paper, and electronics.
The United States and Canada failed to reach a trade deal on Friday, and the United States imposed a 50-percent tariff on 20 billion U.S. dollars' worth of Canadian goods on Saturday which took effect just after midnight (0400 GMT).
Explaining why negotiations broke down at the last minute, Carney said that while both sides were close to a mutually beneficial agreement earlier this week, the U.S. side introduced last-minute changes that were "unfair, uneconomic and called into question the reliability of any deal."
The U.S. side's repeated disregard for existing free trade agreements, such as the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA), sends a bad signal to international businesses and is "certainly not good news" for the agreement's future renewal, Carney warned.
The rift comes as the United States, Mexico and Canada are trying to renew the CUSMA, a trade agreement that Trump negotiated in his first term and once praised as a triumph.
The United States has begun formal talks with Mexico to revamp the agreement, but negotiations with Canada have not yet begun.
The CUSMA is a trilateral trade pact that replaced the North American Free Trade Agreement when it took effect on July 1, 2020. On July 1, 2026, the United States officially declined to renew the agreement for another 16-year term, triggering an annual review process until the pact expires in 2036.
When asked why Canada was entering a trade dispute, the prime minister replied flatly: "Because we were attacked."
Carney reiterated his confidence in Canada's economic resilience, pointing out that Canada is creating jobs at four times the rate of the United States, with foreign direct investment reaching a 20-year high.
"Canada is becoming stronger and less dependent on America," he said.
Canadian PM vows "dollar-for-dollar" tariffs against U.S. as trade talks collapse
