In July and August, Washington tightened restrictions on foreign-made advanced robotic systems and imposed steep tariffs on imported drones, citing national-security concerns. These moves are part of a broader U.S. effort to restrict foreign technology in strategically important industries, with the FCC’s Covered List initially targeting telecommunications and surveillance equipment from companies including Huawei, ZTE, and Hikvision before expanding to foreign-made drones and advanced robotic devices.

The latest move comes as Chinese manufacturers have built commanding positions in both drones and humanoid robots, often competing at prices U.S. and European rivals struggle to match. Industry analysts and executives said the result may be less a clean U.S.-China split than a more fragmented global market, with Chinese companies expanding elsewhere while U.S. and allied manufacturers compete in markets where security requirements matter more.

China dominates global humanoid robot manufacturing, with global shipments hitting 22,000 units in the first half of the year — the vast majority from Chinese manufacturers, according to a report by Counterpoint. U.S. companies, by contrast, are operating at a far smaller scale. The world's five largest humanoid robot makers by shipments — AgiBot, Unitree, Galbot, UBTECH, and Leju Robotics — were all Chinese and together accounted for 86% of global shipments in the first half of 2026, according to Counterpoint.

The advantages of lower prices and higher production volumes could compound, allowing Chinese manufacturers to put more robots into use, generating real-world data that can improve their technology. Chinese humanoid makers are also pushing costs down by bringing more of the technology stack in-house and drawing on China's existing manufacturing base.

While the U.S. leads in frontier AI, software, and semiconductor innovation, China leads in manufacturing scale, supply-chain depth, and cost. The manufacturing edge has let Chinese companies cut humanoid prices faster than most U.S. competitors can match. “You cannot sanction your way around a cost curve. You can only out-build it, and America has yet to begin making the decade-long investment that will require,” said Ankur Saxena.