Robots will play a growing role in caring for China’s elderly, industry insiders say, as robotics firms move to tap into the country’s expanding “silver economy.”

Why It Matters

China, like the rest of East Asia, is grappling with a flagging birth rate coupled with a fast-aging workforce.

People aged 65 and older already make up about 15 percent of its 1.4 billion citizens, according to United Nations data. Demographers expect China to join Japan and South Korea as a “super-aged” society, where more than one in five residents are seniors, by 2035.

With record numbers of Chinese retiring, the country faces mounting strain on its pension system and social safety nets, alongside a shrinking workforce to support them. Beijing says it is ramping up investment in elder care, including artificial intelligence and humanoid robotics, to prepare for these demographic shifts.

What To Know

China is rapidly positioning itself as a leader in robotics. The country already ranks third in industrial robot density worldwide—behind South Korea and Singapore—and earlier this month hosted the 10th World Robot Conference in Beijing, which featured the world’s first “humanoid robotics Olympics.”

Earlier this year, the International Electrotechnical Commission—a world authority on international standards for electrical and electronic technologies—published its first standard for elderly-care robots, heralding a new age of regulation and standardization for the nascent industry, per Chinese Communist Party newspaper the People’s Daily.

Industry officials say the technology has reached a point where robots could soon fill labor gaps created by an aging population, easing pressure amid a shrinking pool of human caregivers and helping prop up China’s “silver economy.”

What People Are Saying

Leng Xiaokun, chairman of Leju (Shenzhen) Robotics Co., said, “We have consistently focused on developing humanoid robots with a clear goal: to bring them into homes, service settings and elderly care.”

What’s Next

China plans to make elderly care part of its broader population strategy, with the Ministry of Civil Affairs last year announcing reforms to be implemented before the end of the decade.

The plan includes a tiered system of elder services from county down to township levels and called for greater innovation, from brain-computer interfaces to humanoid robot care.

Venture capitalists have already taken notice. On Monday, Shenzhen-based X Square Robot, a startup in the humanoid robot space, announced roughly $100 million in new funding led by Alibaba Cloud, bringing its total investment to about $280 million, CNBC reported.

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