China

After a year in transit, Tianwen-2 has rendezvoused with the tiny near-Earth asteroid and will map it before attempting to collect a sample for return to Earth.

Two months after a RMB 1 billion round, ROBOTERA raised over $200 million to scale humanoid deployments across 10-plus logistics centers.

A joint directive from China's industry ministry and state-asset regulator pushes humanoid robots from demos into paying jobs, targeting 10,000 commercial units and 100-plus applications by year-end.

UBTECH, which sold 1,079 industrial humanoids in 2025, has launched a consumer brand, UWORLD, and opened JD.com preorders for the U1 ahead of a June 30 reveal.

BIS clarified on May 31 that advanced-computing export licenses are required for any entity whose ultimate parent is headquartered in Country Group D:5 or Macau, even when located outside.

China flew its new reusable Long March 12B for the first time on June 1, delivering operational Qianfan megaconstellation satellites with no public airspace warning.

The Shanghai Stock Exchange's STAR Market listing committee cleared the humanoid robot maker's IPO on Monday, a key hurdle toward a 4.2-billion-yuan raise.

A Nature Communications study argues Kamo'oalewa likely came from the Flora asteroid family, not the Moon, weeks before Tianwen-2 reaches its target.

XPENG began mass production of its L4 robotaxi on May 18, making it the first Chinese automaker to build a robotaxi entirely through in-house engineering.

A Nature study extracts 11 proteins from six Homo erectus teeth found in China, revealing a shared amino acid variant with Denisovans now present in some Southeast Asian and Oceanian populations.

Shenzhou 23 lifted off May 24 carrying Lai Ka-ying, Hong Kong's first astronaut, with one of the three crew members set for China's first year-long spaceflight.

The IEA's Global EV Outlook 2026 finds one in four new cars sold worldwide was electric in 2025, with China dominating production and exports even as US sales softened after the EV tax credit expired.