China has an army of robots on its side in the tariff war | Enormous investments in factory equipment and artificial intelligence are giving China an edge in car manufacturing and other industries

> China’s secret weapon in the trade war is an army of factory robots, powered by artificial intelligence, that have revolutionized manufacturing.

> Factories are being automated across China at a breakneck pace. With engineers and electricians tending to fleets of robots, these operations are bringing down the cost of manufacturing while improving quality.

> As a result, China’s factories will be able to keep the price of many of its exports lower, giving it an advantage in fighting the trade war and President Trump’s high tariffs. China is also facing new trade barriers by the European Union and developing countries ranging from Brazil and India to Turkey and Thailand.

> Factories are now more automated in China than in the United States, Germany or Japan. China has more factory robots for every 10,000 manufacturing workers than any other country except South Korea or Singapore, according to the International Federation of Robotics.

> China’s automation drive has been guided by government directives and backed with huge investment. And as robots replace workers, automation positions China to continue to dominate mass production even as its labor force ages and becomes less willing to take industrial jobs.

> He Liang, founder and chief executive of Yunmu Intelligent Manufacturing, one of China’s top producers of humanoid robots, said China was striving next to turn robotics into an entire new sector of business.

> “The expectation for humanoid robots is to create another electric car industry,” he said. “So from this perspective, it is a national strategy.”

> Robots are replacing workers not just in car factories but even in China’s many thousands of back-alley workshops.

> Elon Li’s curbside workshop in Guangzhou, the commercial hub of southeastern China, has 11 workers who cut and weld metal to make inexpensive ovens and barbecue equipment. He is now preparing to pay $40,000 to a Chinese company for a robotic arm with a camera. The device uses artificial intelligence to observe how a worker welds the sides of an oven, and then duplicates the action with minimal human intervention.

> Only four years ago, the same system was available only from foreign robot companies and cost nearly $140,000. “Before, I never would have imagined investing in automation,” Mr. Li said, adding that a human employee “can only work for eight hours a day, but a machine can work 24 hours.”

!ping CHINA