China wants to establish a coordinated standards system for its rapidly growing humanoid robot industry by 2028, potentially making the machines easier to test, compare and deploy at scale. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has opened the proposed framework for public consultation.
The draft calls for at least 100 key standards covering capability testing, core technologies, application scenarios and safety governance. According to the draft cited by Xinhua, the goal is to have more than 200 enterprises promoting and implementing these specifications, creating what officials describe as a “systematic, science-based and coordinated” standards environment.
The framework builds on groundwork laid earlier this year with the release of the Humanoid Robotics and Embodied Intelligence Standard System (2026 Edition).
That document, unveiled in Beijing in February, marked China’s first top-level standard design covering the entire industrial chain and full lifecycle of the machines, dividing the technical landscape into six pillars: Basic Commonality, Brain-like Computing, Limbs and Components, Whole Machine Systems, Application, and Safety and Ethics.
The effort comes as China’s humanoid robot sector expands rapidly. At a July 20 briefing, MIIT said the country had developed more than 400 humanoid robot models, accounting for more than half of the global total, Xinhua reported.
The proposed framework spans much more than the physical robot. Dig Watch said it would address areas including terminology, classification, digital identity, testing, reliability, interoperability, data, models, operating systems and human-machine interaction.
Safety and governance also have their own place in the framework. Proposed standards would cover physical safety, cybersecurity and data protection, model and algorithm safety, behavioral safety, application safety, and ethical and social governance across the robot lifecycle.
What eWeek found: China is shifting from structure to implementation
A comparison with China’s February framework shows the standards effort becoming more concrete. The earlier document organized the industry into six technical pillars, while the latest proposal adds targets of at least 100 standards and participation from more than 200 enterprises by 2028.
The inclusion of interoperability, operating systems, cybersecurity and data protection also gives the proposal a clear enterprise dimension. These standards could influence how manufacturers integrate robots with factory systems and how buyers compare competing machines.
The shift suggests China is moving beyond defining its humanoid robot industry and toward building the technical foundation needed for commercial deployment.
Why the standards push matters
The timing is important because humanoid robots are increasingly being tested for industrial deployment, where inconsistent interfaces or unreliable components can make scaling difficult.
China is already pushing toward larger deployments. In June, MIIT and the country’s state assets regulator launched an initiative aimed at validating applications and enabling routine deployments in representative settings by the end of 2026, while developing the capacity to support deployments at the 10,000-unit scale, eWeek previously reported.
Standardized testing could make it easier for manufacturers and customers to compare what different robots can actually do, rather than relying heavily on vendor claims. Common interfaces could also make components and software easier to integrate across suppliers.
The bigger challenge: proving robots are ready
The proposed framework could become an important piece of China’s effort to move humanoid robots from experimental products to repeatable industrial tools. But 100 standards alone will not solve the sector’s engineering problems.
According to Baidu Wiki, the sector continues to face high hardware costs, limited workshop deployments and poor process stability. Those issues suggest that the harder test will be whether standardized products can deliver consistent performance in messy, demanding environments.
That is why the inclusion of safety, cybersecurity, data protection and ethical requirements matters. As robots gain more autonomy and enter workplaces, standards will need to establish not just how well a machine performs, but also how reliably and safely it behaves.
For manufacturers, the standards could raise compliance costs while establishing clearer technical targets. For buyers, common tests and interfaces could make competing robots easier to evaluate. The ultimate test will be whether those standards help China’s humanoid robot industry move from controlled demonstrations to reliable, large-scale deployments.
Read more: China is already moving humanoid robots into real-world jobs, offering an early test of whether the machines can perform reliably beyond controlled demonstrations.