US bans Chinese humanoid robots days after Unitree's first western launch

The United States has banned imports of new Chinese-made humanoid robots and robot dogs, closing the American market to the country that has come to dominate global humanoid production.

What The FCC Banned

The Federal Communications Commission added foreign-made humanoid robots, quadruped robots — the four-legged machines commonly called robot dogs — and power inverters to its list of equipment prohibited on national-security grounds. The restrictions took effect immediately.

There is an important limit to the ban that much of the early coverage has glossed over: it applies only to new models not yet authorised for sale in the United States. Robots that have already cleared US approval, including many made by market leader Unitree, can continue to be sold. The ban closes the door on what comes next rather than removing what is already deployed.

The FCC said the devices could create supply-chain and cybersecurity risks, particularly if foreign actors were able to compromise or control them. ‘These devices could create supply chain vulnerabilities that could disrupt US economic and national security,’ the commission said. The decision followed a national security determination made by a White House-convened interagency body, which warned that internet-connected robots could pose data privacy and cybersecurity risks.

Reporting by TechTimes states the FCC pointed to backdoors identified in Unitree hardware already deployed at American universities including MIT and Princeton — a claim that, if borne out by the commission's published order, would move the rationale from theoretical supply-chain risk to documented compromise.

The Timing Could Not Be Worse For Unitree

The ban lands at the precise moment Unitree was breaking into Western markets. On July 22, the company launched commercially in Europe, becoming the first Chinese-made humanoid to enter Western commercial markets. That European foothold may now be the only one it has.

It follows a separate blow. On June 8, the Pentagon formally designated Unitree a Chinese military company under Section 1260H, barring it from US defence contracts. The company has previously worked with Nvidia on robots powered by the American chipmaker's technology.

What China Stands To Lose

The scale of Chinese dominance in this market explains why the ban matters. Of roughly 15,000 humanoid robots shipped globally in 2025, Unitree and AgiBot — two of China's largest advanced robotics companies — each shipped more than 5,000. Between them, the two firms accounted for the majority of the world's humanoid robot shipments.

Chinese humanoids have competed primarily on price, undercutting American and Japanese rivals by wide margins and making the technology accessible to universities, research labs and smaller commercial buyers that could not afford Western alternatives. The US market has been a significant part of that growth.

Beijing quickly accused the United States of protectionism.

The Wider Pattern

The robot ban is the latest expansion of a national-security framework the US has applied to Chinese technology across sectors — from telecommunications equipment to advanced chips to, now, physical robotics. Each round has followed a similar logic: that hardware built by Chinese firms and connected to the internet represents a potential channel for surveillance or disruption that cannot be reliably audited from outside.

For the robotics industry, the practical effect is a market split. Chinese manufacturers retain scale and cost advantages globally, but are increasingly locked out of the American market — while American manufacturers, who ship far fewer units, gain a protected domestic market in which to catch up.