China puts industrial robots in first batch of domestic-product rules for state buying

China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and Ministry of Finance on Oct 30 published for public comment the first batch of product standards that decide which goods count as domestic in government procurement, Xinhua reported.

Fixed multi-joint industrial robots are one of five products, with portable FTIR gas analysers, reverse-osmosis water treatment equipment, field-emission scanning electron microscopes and small and medium helicopters.

MEKAWIRE did not reach the consultation document, so the thresholds are not confirmed. Under the State Council notice behind the rules (Guobanfa [2025] No. 34, in force since Jan 1, 2026), a domestic product must be made in China and meet a product-specific share of China-made component cost, and some products must also have key components and key processes in China; qualifying bids get a 20% price deduction in evaluation, and each product rule comes with a transition of three to five years.

The notice says state, private and foreign-invested firms are treated alike, so a foreign robot maker assembling in China can qualify if its components clear the bar. MEKAWIRE context: China made 794,781 industrial robots from January to September, up 29% (NBS), and the rule adds a procurement lever to the nine-ministry embodied-AI opinion of Oct 19.