In mid-February 2026, footage circulated on Chinese social media showing robots chasing, cornering, and physically threatening ordinary people on public sidewalks. The incidents surfaced just days after China’s state-run Spring Festival Gala, an annual propaganda broadcast, featured humanoid robots in coordinated performances that were later exposed as remotely controlled by human operators backstage. Chinese internet users are now asking whether the CCP’s robot push is less about technological progress and more about surveillance, control, and commercial fraud.
Videos circulating online in February 2026 show Chinese robots being trained to physically confront and intimidate civilians on public streets. On Feb. 19, the X account “O” posted footage with the commentary: “CCP enforcers have started training robots to bully ordinary people.”
In one clip, a robot blocks a man riding a motorcycle on a pedestrian walkway. The rider stops, still straddling his vehicle, as the robot jogs toward him in what appears to be an aggressive charge. The man leaps off the motorcycle and runs. The robot then turns and strikes the abandoned vehicle.
In a second clip, filmed outside a glass-walled building, a man sits on his motorcycle looking at his phone. A robot marches up to him without warning. The man pockets his phone and stares at the machine for a moment before scrambling backward on his seat. As the robot closes in, the man bolts, losing a shoe in the process. The robot pursues him until he disappears from the frame.
Chinese internet users compare robot enforcement to regime thuggery
The footage provoked a wave of caustic commentary from Chinese internet users. “The regime’s loyalists cheered for the Spring Festival Gala robots,” one user wrote. “Now the urban enforcement squads are using robots to police people directly.” Another commenter predicted a new form of state extortion: “Buy twenty robots, hire ten lawyers, and you can run a street-shakedown operation.” A third observed: “These robots bring people fear, not benefit.”
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Others questioned whether the videos were staged propaganda. “This is a Central Propaganda Department setup,” one user wrote. Several more pointed to a broader pattern: “CCP technology is entirely designed to harm Chinese citizens. Technology is supposed to serve people. Under this regime, it does the opposite.”
While the CCP promotes its robotics industry as world-leading, recent viral videos tell a different story. Footage posted around the same time showed a Unitree robot, one of China’s most hyped humanoid machines, attempting basic household chores and failing at every one. It could not pour water. It could not sweep a floor. It could not push a baby stroller. Chinese internet users compared the machine to a cheap toy marketed as cutting-edge educational technology.
Other users were blunter, summing up the state of Chinese robotics as “completely broken in every way.”
The February robot controversy followed revelations about the CCP’s 2026 Spring Festival Gala, the regime’s flagship annual propaganda broadcast watched by hundreds of millions. The gala featured humanoid robots from companies including Songyan Power, Unitree Tech, Magic Atom, and Galaxy General performing coordinated dance routines. State media promoted the spectacle as proof of China’s technological supremacy.
The reality was less impressive. Backstage footage that leaked online showed human operators wearing motion-capture suits and performing every movement in real time. The robots were copying the humans’ actions through sensor transmission. Without the hidden operators, the machines would have stood motionless on stage.
Chinese commenters were unsparing. “They first said the robots were running pre-programmed routines. Now we can see there was no program at all. They were just remote-controlled the whole time,” one wrote. Another added: “Sure, there has been some progress, but this is nothing like what they advertised. What happened to ‘autonomous movement capability’? It is still a lie.”
The gala was a product launch disguised as entertainment
Chinese internet users quickly realized that the 2026 Spring Festival Gala was a sales event dressed up as a national celebration. Jimu News, a Chinese outlet, reported that multiple robot companies, including Songyan Power, Unitree Tech, Magic Atom, and Galaxy General, showcased products during the broadcast. Within two hours of the gala’s start, searches for robots on JD.com, a major Chinese e-commerce platform, surged more than 300 percent, and orders jumped more than 150 percent.
On Feb. 17, a Unitree customer service representative told Jimu News that the “gala edition” robot, the G1 EDU U2 Advanced, was already available for online purchase through JD.com and Douyin, China’s version of TikTok. The price: 208,850 yuan (roughly $29,000 USD). The robot ships to your door, but the company does not accept returns.
Chinese citizens were scathing. “So the whole Spring Festival Gala was just a product launch,” one wrote. “Incredible. Ordinary people work hard all year and then sit down to watch a shopping channel for the rich,” said another.
A third commenter challenged the official narrative directly: “Who is buying a robot that can’t do anything useful, and supposedly selling out instantly? Either you think we’re stupid, or you’ve lost your mind.”