A robot participates at a temple fair on the third day of the Lunar New Year of the Horse in Beijing. “If I do it after new year it will be bad luck and my mother’s brother could die,” he said. Humanoid robots took to the stage and put on a kung-fu/dancing masterclass during the annual China Media Group’s Spring Festival Gala. Some analysts outside China saw this display as a projection by the Communist Party of China’s technological progress in the context of its strategic competition with the United States. During Chinese New Year, people traditionally give presents of money in red envelopes and the tech giants offered digital red envelopes and other subsidies to encourage people to use their AI apps.

Source: The Irish Times February 20, 2026 16:27 UTC