It's started: Robot Uprising Begins as China Turns to Machines to Fill in Gaps in the Workforce

[onebyone]

Receptionists, criminals, doctors – robots are taking on all shapes and sizes to aid us in our everyday jobs


PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 24 January, 2018, 10:42am
UPDATED : Wednesday, 24 January, 2018, 12:26pm


As machine automation and artificial intelligence gain prominence in our lives, everyone from technological universities to surprisingly tech-savvy criminals seem to want in on the action.

From potentially life-saving robots (think medical and dental), to lawbreaking ones made by a tout and online fraudsters, the machines are on the rise as we enter 2018.

1. Chinese dating apps shut after ‘sexy girl’ chats found to be run by robots
Police shut down a variety of dating apps in China after it was discovered that the “sexy girls” advertised for customers to chat with were actually artificial intelligence computer programs. The cases involved hundreds of thousands of customers and the fraud amounted to more than 1 billion yuan (US$154 million). More than 600 suspects have been arrested. Other scams involved customers paying to watch videos with sexual content, but they were unable to load and view the films.

2. Chinese firm halves worker costs by hiring army of robots to sort out 200,000 packages a day

Behind-the-scenes footage of a self-charging robot army in a delivery warehouse was shared on People’s Daily’s social media accounts in April 2017. The video showed dozens of round orange Hikvision robots – each the size of a seat cushion – swivelling across the floor of a sorting centre of Chinese delivery powerhouse Shentong (STO) Express. The machines can sort up to 200,000 packages a day and are self-charging, meaning they can operate around the clock.

3. China sends underwater robots in race against time to plug leaking oil tanker
As an oil tanker crash in the East China Sea threatens to become the world’s biggest eco disaster in decades, China sent underwater robots to help detect leaks and plug the flow of oil from the sunken tanker. The Panama-registered Sanchi was carrying 136,000 tonnes of highly flammable ultralight crude oil.

4. Why China’s ammunition factories are being turned over to robots
Roughly a quarter of China’s ammunition factories have replaced workers with robots or begun to do so – which means the country’s bomb and shell production capacity could treble in less than a decade. These “smart machines” can assemble sophisticated ammunition and are five times as productive as a human worker.

5. Chinese police short circuit scalper’s robo train ticket racket
A man from southern China developed a home-made robot arm that repeatedly hit the refresh button of the state rail booking website, allowing him to buy more than 150 in-demand train tickets. He then illegally resold the tickets on his own website, profiting more than 3,000 yuan (US$465). The man said he spent about six months and thousands of yuan to build the robot. Police has since shut down his operation.

6. Chinese court introduces robot guide
Step into Hebei’s Qiaoxi Court and you will be greeted not by a human receptionist, but by Xiaoxi, a robot guide that will point you where you need to go based on the services you are looking for. The robot also has knowledge about court proceedings and litigation, and is able to provide legal consultation services to visitors.

7. China’s home droid wars just heated up with a US$1,000 ET-like robot
Designed to appeal to children and keep the elderly company, the Zenbo Qrobot is the latest entry in the crowded field of home droids. It can move on its own and interact with surroundings but faces competition from other home assistant devices including Baidu’s Little Fish, Alibaba’s Tmall Genie x2, and Rokid’s Alien.

8. Meet Aidam, the Chinese robot who can help you ace mathematics
A Chinese tech company wants to ease the heavy workload of teachers with a robot called Aidam. He scored 134 out of 150 in the maths paper for Gaokao, China’s college entrance exam, in less than 10 minutes. Aidam can be used by teachers to mark homework, analyse learning patterns for classes, and pinpoint students’ difficulties with specific maths problems.

9. How a robot passed China’s medical licensing exam
In November 2017, Xiaoyi, which means “Little Doctor” in mandarin, became the first artificial intelligence robot to pass China’s medical licensing exam. The machine’s score showed it had the ability to learn, reason and make judgments by itself, but there was a long way to go before Xiaoyi could practise independently. What it can do at present is help doctors identify problems quicker and avoid some risks.

10. Chinese robot dentist is first to fit implants in patient’s mouth without any human involvement
Having to work within a small space – inside a mouth with hard-to-see corners – often poses a problem for dental surgeons. But Chinese researchers have come up with a possible solution: robot dentists – one of which carried out the first successful autonomous implant surgery in September 2017. Most impressively, the implants were fitted to within a margin of error of 0.2-0.3mm, reaching the required standard for this kind of operation.

11. Inside the Chinese dumpling factory where robots do all the work

“Will robot-made dumplings be tastier than handmade ones?” That was a question a Beijing-based social media user asked when a video showing rows of robots making dumplings in a factory in northern China was posted on a Chinese streaming site. The factory is unstaffed and the robots work 24 hours a day. Some internet users expressed worry about possible job losses from automation while others insisted that handmade dumplings were still superior.

12. Robots being used to teach children in China’s schools … will they replace teachers?
KeeKo, an artificial intelligence robot with the intelligence level of a five-year-old child, has been used in some 200 kindergartens across China since its launch in 2016. The robot interacts with young children by playing games with them, singing, dancing, reading stories, carrying out conversations and even doing mathematics. In a Xinhua video, the robot is described as a “cute intelligent toy” that can help children better understand their lessons.

Bonus: Chinese engineer ‘marries’ robot after failing to find a human wife
Tired of the wait for a perfect wife, Zheng Jiajia, 31, an artificial intelligence expert, created a robot he named Yingying, whom he married in April 2017. Zheng dressed Yingying up in a black suit on their wedding day and covered “her” head with a red scarf during the ceremony, which was a traditional Chinese wedding ritual. Witnesses to the event were Zheng’s mother and his friends.

http://www.scmp.com/news/china/soci...-chinese-robots-taking-over-our-everyday-jobs

 

[cirr]

This Week In China Tech: Robots Beat Teachers In Classroom, Tencent Builds For Blockchain

Bay McLaughlin

JAN 31, 2018 @ 10:09 PM

The Didi AI lab already has 200 scientists and engineers on the team and they intend to expand the team ever further before year end.

Yi Xue’s AI-based system beat the experienced teachers by 38%.

Shutterstock

Some big trends have emerged this week in red hot areas like blockchain, artificial intelligence, and edtech. The bottom line seems to be that China is investing in a big way to ensure it remains on the cutting edge when it comes to the technology of tomorrow, whether it's investing billions into AI or leveraging the country's most important social media platform to embrace blockchain. Here are the some of the most interesting tech stories out of China you might not have heard about.

Pony Ma, chairman and CEO of Tencent Holdings Ltd. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

Tencent Goes All In On Blockchain

Everyone is adopting blockchain technologies, but it’s hard for big companies to move at the speed of technological innovation. This is not the case for Tencent in China, makers of WeChat, a social media messaging app with 1 billion active users. Pony Ma, CEO of Tencent, sent a WeChat post last week explaining his vision of blockchain, but Tencent has already created various services, products, and a blockchain development platform for third parties to build on top of.

Some of the use cases outlined in this article (article in Chinese) are a new financial application in partnership with the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the world’s largest and most valuable bank, where users can make money if the price of gold increases. This is a spin on their limited release Gold Red Pocket promotion earlier this year. Tencent also offers a Supply Chain Finance Service using blockchain technology in partnership with Linklogis that helps small to medium-sized businesses to obtain financing at lower costs than traditional lending systems. Traditional lending requires additional middlemen and paperwork for trust and information and collateral tracking. There’s even a blockchain application that helps people search for and find missing people. An example of this happened recently when a parent posted a missing child and when the child was found, the case was closed using the blockchain and the entire system was updated with the notification.

The big news here is the blockchain ecosystem that Tencent is building. Think of the tools that Apple and Google make available for developers of iOS and Android apps. Tencent has made a similar ecosystem for blockchain technology and is powering a new generation of applications for small and medium companies and is way ahead in its partnerships with the largest corporations across China. It seems that Pony Ma and Tencent will be leading one of the most important technological advancements in the country… again.

(Photo by Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Didi, China's Uber, Quietly Launches An Artificial Intelligence Lab

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a critical technology that may change the direction of civilization, and the United States and China are always at the center of the conversation. So it’s a big deal whenever we hear of new AI stories (article in Chinese) coming out of either of these two advanced economies.

This week brings news of Didi, the company that beat Uber in China, and their AI aspirations. The information is hard to come by, but what we’ve been able to find is that their AI lab will focus on natural language processing, voice recognition and other technologies that will enhance the smart driving revolution and bring more convenience to passengers. What these new features will be was not disclosed in the article. The Didi AI lab already has 200 scientists and engineers on the team and they intend to expand the team ever further before year end.

It’s important to note that China announced plans to invest $2.1 billion into an industrial AI park outside of the nation’s capital in Beijing and have more than 30 universities offering AI based coursework to undergraduates. The country has dictated that they will be the world's leader in AI by the year 2030. There are only a few technologies that are worth following as closely as AI so stay tuned as we cover more of China’s AI developments in this weekly column.

Shutterstock

Chinese EdTech Company Proves AI Teaches Better Than Actual Teachers

You may have heard of artificial intelligence (AI), but you haven’t heard of what’s happening in Chinese classrooms (article in Chinese). Yi Xue, an education technology company in China, focuses on junior high education and uses AI to test students’ knowledge to an incredible level of detail.

Students start by taking a set of problems and Yi Xue’s system analyzes their capability for the skills required on college entrance exams. Based on the students’ abilities, the AI creates a tailored knowledge plan and helps the student train in the areas where they’re lacking via online work and offline tutoring. They use Bayesian networks for building up tailored profiles for each student and Yi Xue has been able to prove that their system can teach students more effectively than highly trained teachers.

In October of 2017, Yi Xue held a competition for real teachers versus their AI computer teaching system. Over four days, 78 junior high students and three teachers with an average of 17 years teaching experience each, were run through a test. The AI taught students raised their average scores by 36.13 points compared to the human teacher-led students who only raised their score by 26.18 points. Yi Xue’s AI-based system beat the experienced teachers by 38%.

Education is a sensitive area, but in China, it’s one of the most competitive and important aspects of a child’s upbringing. Any edge a parent can give their child is highly sought after and will be adopted at all costs. The education technology industry is heating up in China and with an additional $45 million in investment, Yi Xue looks poised to be one of the leaders. Stay tuned because we may just see the global education revolution take place in China first.

That's it for this week in China Tech. If you have any stories you think we should cover next week, feel free to message me and make sure to check back for more stories coming from China next week!

Bay is the Co-Founder of Brinc.io, an early-stage IoT and Hardware investment and product development firm and an active speaker around the world. You can learn more and connect with bay at BetaBay.me

https://www.forbes.com/sites/baymclaughlin/2018/01/31/this-week-in-china-tech-robots-

 

[onebyone]

TWEET THIS

• The Didi AI lab already has 200 scientists and engineers on the team and they intend to expand the team ever further before year end.
• Yi Xue’s AI-based system beat the experienced teachers by 38%.

Shutterstock

Some big trends have emerged this week in red hot areas like blockchain, artificial intelligence, and edtech. The bottom line seems to be that China is investing in a big way to ensure it remains on the cutting edge when it comes to the technology of tomorrow, whether it's investing billions into AI or leveraging the country's most important social media platform to embrace blockchain. Here are the some of the most interesting tech stories out of China you might not have heard about.

Pony Ma, chairman and CEO of Tencent Holdings Ltd. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

Tencent Goes All In On Blockchain

Everyone is adopting blockchain technologies, but it’s hard for big companies to move at the speed of technological innovation. This is not the case for Tencent in China, makers of WeChat, a social media messaging app with 1 billion active users. Pony Ma, CEO of Tencent, sent a WeChat post last week explaining his vision of blockchain, but Tencent has already created various services, products, and a blockchain development platform for third parties to build on top of.





Some of the use cases outlined in this article (article in Chinese) are a new financial application in partnership with the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the world’s largest and most valuable bank, where users can make money if the price of gold increases. This is a spin on their limited release Gold Red Pocket promotion earlier this year. Tencent also offers a Supply Chain Finance Service using blockchain technology in partnership with Linklogis that helps small to medium-sized businesses to obtain financing at lower costs than traditional lending systems. Traditional lending requires additional middlemen and paperwork for trust and information and collateral tracking. There’s even a blockchain application that helps people search for and find missing people. An example of this happened recently when a parent posted a missing child and when the child was found, the case was closed using the blockchain and the entire system was updated with the notification.

The big news here is the blockchain ecosystem that Tencent is building. Think of the tools that Apple and Google make available for developers of iOS and Android apps. Tencent has made a similar ecosystem for blockchain technology and is powering a new generation of applications for small and medium companies and is way ahead in its partnerships with the largest corporations across China. It seems that Pony Ma and Tencent will be leading one of the most important technological advancements in the country… again.

(Photo by Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Didi, China's Uber, Quietly Launches An Artificial Intelligence Lab

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a critical technology that may change the direction of civilization, and the United States and China are always at the center of the conversation. So it’s a big deal whenever we hear of new AI stories (article in Chinese) coming out of either of these two advanced economies.

This week brings news of Didi, the company that beat Uber in China, and their AI aspirations. The information is hard to come by, but what we’ve been able to find is that their AI lab will focus on natural language processing, voice recognition and other technologies that will enhance the smart driving revolution and bring more convenience to passengers. What these new features will be was not disclosed in the article. The Didi AI lab already has 200 scientists and engineers on the team and they intend to expand the team ever further before year end.

It’s important to note that China announced plans to invest $2.1 billion into an industrial AI park outside of the nation’s capital in Beijing and have more than 30 universities offering AI based coursework to undergraduates. The country has dictated that they will be the world's leader in AI by the year 2030. There are only a few technologies that are worth following as closely as AI so stay tuned as we cover more of China’s AI developments in this weekly column.

Shutterstock

Chinese EdTech Company Proves AI Teaches Better Than Actual Teachers

You may have heard of artificial intelligence (AI), but you haven’t heard of what’s happening in Chinese classrooms (article in Chinese). Yi Xue, an education technology company in China, focuses on junior high education and uses AI to test students’ knowledge to an incredible level of detail.

Students start by taking a set of problems and Yi Xue’s system analyzes their capability for the skills required on college entrance exams. Based on the students’ abilities, the AI creates a tailored knowledge plan and helps the student train in the areas where they’re lacking via online work and offline tutoring. They use Bayesian networks for building up tailored profiles for each student and Yi Xue has been able to prove that their system can teach students more effectively than highly trained teachers.

In October of 2017, Yi Xue held a competition for real teachers versus their AI computer teaching system. Over four days, 78 junior high students and three teachers with an average of 17 years teaching experience each, were run through a test. The AI taught students raised their average scores by 36.13 points compared to the human teacher-led students who only raised their score by 26.18 points. Yi Xue’s AI-based system beat the experienced teachers by 38%.

Education is a sensitive area, but in China, it’s one of the most competitive and important aspects of a child’s upbringing. Any edge a parent can give their child is highly sought after and will be adopted at all costs. The education technology industry is heating up in China and with an additional $45 million in investment, Yi Xue looks poised to be one of the leaders. Stay tuned because we may just see the global education revolution take place in China first.

That's it for this week in China Tech. If you have any stories you think we should cover next week, feel free to message me and make sure to check back for more stories coming from China next week!

Bay is the Co-Founder of Brinc.io, an early-stage IoT and Hardware investment and product development firm and an active speaker around the world. You can learn more and connect with bay at BetaBay.me



https://www.forbes.com/sites/baymcl...m-tencent-builds-for-blockchain/#35888c253136

 

[Shotgunner51]

There are five major markets representing 74% of the total sales volume in 2016: China Mainland, the Republic of Korea, Japan, the United States, and Germany. Taiwan ranks world 6th largest.

China Mainland has significantly expanded its leading position as the biggest market with a share of 30% of the total supply in 2016 (27% in 2015). With sales of about 87,000 industrial robots in 2016 – an increase of 27% compared to 2015 - China came close to the total sales volume of Europe and the Americas combined (97,300 units).

https://ifr.org/downloads/press/Executive_Summary_WR_2017_Industrial_Robots.pdf
https://ifr.org/downloads/press/Presentation_PC_27_Sept_2017.pdf

 

[Solomon2]

In this video from China's NIDE (located in Ningbo city), there are no workers! The stator (ie. "the stationary winding in an electric motor") production line is fully automated -

Not such a good example: nobody wants to wind a motor by hand and consequently there have been purpose-built machines for coil winding for many decades.

(The Japanese are probably the world's leader in small-motor automated winding technology, Seiko has an amazing watch-manufacturing plant, there's probably a video of it somewhere.)

 

[Nan Yang]

After cashiers, supermarket managers may be next to lose jobs as AI predicts what to stock
Chinese search engine operator and AI powerhouse Baidu said it has developed a model that can predict store sales for the next day

Meng Jing: Monday, 12 Feb 2018,

US e-commerce giant Amazon may have just made cashiers redundant by opening its artificial intelligence powered checkout-free grocery store in its hometown Seattle in January, but on the other side of the Pacific an experiment conducted by Chinese search engine Baidu could make management in supermarkets and convenience stores worry about their own job prospects.

The ability to accurately predict consumption patterns of perishable food products on rainy work days in say, the central business district of China’s Wuhan city, is something only experienced store managers can do, but that may soon be an obsolete skill thanks to an AI-powered algorithm developed by Baidu, the operator of China’s largest online search engine.

http://m.scmp.com/tech/china-tech/a...supermarket-managers-may-be-next-lose-jobs-ai

 

[AZADPAKISTAN2009]

It would be simpler if folks can explain which jobs will be remaining in world in 10 years so people make plan now

 

[TaiShang]

Get your food served by a robot at restaurants on SW China's rest stops

By Gao Yun
2018-02-25

Smart ordering, smart tables and robot delivery have hit the rest stops at expressways in China's Chongqing Municipality, according to an announcement by the local traffic committee on Saturday.

Dalu rest stop at Chongqing’s Yusui Expressway, a national model rest stop, has recently introduced unmanned restaurant service. The service consists of three parts – a smart ordering system, smart tables and robot delivery.

People choose what they'd like to eat in the ordering system and place them in the shopping cart by clicking the screen on the table. After paying – by non-cash means, like WeChat or Alipay – a robot server brings the food to their tables.

People ordering food on the smart table /Gif via cq.xinhuanet.com

The smart tables can do much more than help you order food. It can be a game machine, a tour guide or even an e-commerce platform. While waiting for food, people can play games, browse news and check the weather and road conditions via their versatile table. They can also order local specialties and have them directly sent home.

Dubbed Amy, the 1.55-meter-tall robot is equipped with autonomous navigation system which enables it to walk freely without a fixed track. It can also stop and avoid obstacles with a radar system, said the person in charge of the restaurant.

Amy is also smart enough to recognize the table number and bring the food right to the diners.

Amy serving the food /Gif via cq.xinhuanet.com

Besides Dalu, the Wulong rest stop at Yuxiang Expressway is also pioneering the robot server.

The service is expected to be rolled out in other rest stops in the city, to provide a better and more convenient experience for drivers and passengers.

"If their performance is good, the robots will find work in more restaurants along the city's expressways," said Zheng Yi, operations manager with the Wulong rest stop.

 

[AViet]

My friend, India is where China was 15 years ago.

Today's India should not focus on technology, but on jobs and low end manufacturing, since there is a lot of scope for improvement there.

After a decade however I am confident India will also rise in technology.

Also, kudos to China, it has risen extremely fast in Science and Technology.

Even Vietnam, with higher GDP per capita than India and most other indicators much better than India, is no where near China 15 years ago. More like 150 years. India possibly 300 years behind China, only about technology wise, not about people mentality wise (which may be 2,000 years behind China. I believe people under Qin dynasty 2200 year ago were more organized, more disciplined, more open in thinking and less religious than modern Indian). I am serious.

technology wise, Vietnam may be 100 - 300 years behind China on average. Many engineering works China could build from 1,000 years ago, I do not believe Vietnam can build now (I myself an engineer).

 

[kankan326]

My friend, India is where China was 15 years ago.

Today's India should not focus on technology, but on jobs and low end manufacturing, since there is a lot of scope for improvement there.

After a decade however I am confident India will also rise in technology.

Also, kudos to China, it has risen extremely fast in Science and Technology.

Even India now is where China was 15 year ago, I don't think India can repeat what China experienced in last 15 years. Most Indians believe it's the most natural thing for India to follow China's pace. Wrong. China's success is not repeatable for most countries. It may be easy to get to where China was 20 years ago. But it's getting harder and harder to follow China's pace as time moves forward.

 

[TaiShang]

Even India now is where China was 15 year ago, I don't think India can repeat what China experienced in last 15 years. Most Indians believe it's the most natural thing for India to follow China's pace. Wrong. China's success is not repeatable for most countries. It may be easy to get to where China was 20 years ago. But it's getting harder and harder to follow China's pace as time moves forward.

It is impossible for India to become today's China in 15 years' of time. Too many critical components are lacking and too many deficiencies and a much tougher international political-economic environment/regional competition.

India missed on manufacturing/industrialization.
It has masses of low-educated, bad morale, unskilled young people (and more on the line waiting to be popped out)
It lacks efficient infrastructure and logistics.
Its governance efficiency record is terrible and politics is dysfunctional to a great degree (simply judging by several military procurement programs)
Besides, there are so many more promising rising power in SEA that are vying for a slice from an increasingly tougher-to-get pie.

China managed a meaningful level of transition thanks to lots of sweat and blood, extremely pragmatic and scientific governments and a (relatively) benign international situation.

Today, even when the US turns protectionist and undermines free trade everyday, where will India generate extra money to achieve debt-free meaningful development?

 

[siegecrossbow]

Jack Ma should start making his own Alibabot.

 

[kankan326]

It is impossible for India to become today's China in 15 years' of time. Too many critical components are lacking and too many deficiencies and a much tougher international political-economic environment/regional competition.

India missed on manufacturing/industrialization.
It has masses of low-educated, bad morale, unskilled young people (and more on the line waiting to be popped out)
It lacks efficient infrastructure and logistics.
Its governance efficiency record is terrible and politics is dysfunctional to a great degree (simply judging by several military procurement programs)
Besides, there are so many more promising rising power in SEA that are vying for a slice from an increasingly tougher-to-get pie.

China managed a meaningful level of transition thanks to lots of sweat and blood, extremely pragmatic and scientific governments and a (relatively) benign international situation.

Today, even when the US turns protectionist and undermines free trade everyday, where will India generate extra money to achieve debt-free meaningful development?

Agree. India and China has nothing in common except population scale. Yet most Indians believe it was right the population scale that led to today's China. How could they draw such simple-minded conclusion? Indians must be badly brain washed by their government and media.

 

[TaiShang]

Agree. India and China has nothing in common except population scale. Yet most Indians believe it was right the population scale that led to today's China. How could they draw such simple-minded conclusion? Indians must be badly brain washed by their government and media.

I think population size is becoming increasingly less of a determinant/factor for sustainable economic development.

Especially given that advanced countries are fast moving into industry 4.0.

Sure, there will be always demand for labor intensive service industries. But, I do not think it is enough to generate sufficient GDP to maintain sustainable growth; especially if the services are low-end and do not generate much wealth.

 

[cirr]

Robots transcend technological frontiers at Winter Olympics

2018-02-27 13:14 China Daily Editor: Mo Hong'e

With dazzling lights, a group of 24 mobile robots "danced" to music with performers in an eight-minute high-tech show on Sunday at the closing ceremony of the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.[Special coverage]

It was one of the world's first live performances involved such a large-scale mobile robot team and human dancers.

"The biggest difficulty is that robots are expected to perform a variety of complicated moves and be in line with the performers, lights and music," said Zhang Lei, who is responsible for developing these mobile robots at Siasun Robot & Automation Co Ltd.

Zhang added that the bad weather and uneven stage also added uncertainties to the show.

The Shenyang, Liaoning province-based company developed and applied laser guidance system to give a pair of "eyes" to the robots so that they could move accurately in the complicated environment.

To guarantee security at the closing ceremony, most of the wireless network bands the robots usually used were shielded. Faced with the bottleneck, Siasun upgraded the communication system of the robots to ensure that they could receive instructions as normal.

Affiliated with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Siasun Robot & Automation Co Ltd (Siasun) is a leading robotics enterprise in China and has one of the most comprehensive robotic product lines in the world.

Its high-tech industrial park went into operation last year and has become the largest robotic industrial base in China.

Luo Jun, CEO of the International Robotics and Intelligent Equipment Industry Alliance, a Beijing-based industry association, said the show reflects China's strength in computer vision technology. "It is a good showcase of the country's technological progress in the past years."

Siasun, China's largest robot maker by market value, is also stepping up efforts to go global. Qu Daokui, president of Siasun, told China Daily in an earlier interview that the company is looking at investing in robot technology leaders in Europe and the United States, with acquisition deals starting from at least $1 billion.

"We want to become a global tech heavyweight in 2020," Qu said.

Currently, the company's industrial robots and other products are exported to more than 30 countries and regions. Moreover, two-thirds of Siasun's customers are foreign companies.

http://www.ecns.cn/2018/02-27/293770.shtml