SEOUL — Amid ongoing controversies surrounding the alleged theft of South Korean semiconductor technology, fresh concerns have surfaced regarding China's rapid tech advancement. This time, accusations are being leveled that Chinese robotics firms have appropriated design blueprints and innovations from United States defense-backed research projects.

According to a recent report by Reuters, citing U.S. defense officials and key researchers, Chinese robotics company Unitree Robotics heavily relied on U.S. military-funded developments to engineer its prominent quadruped (four-legged) robots. The sources noted that Unitree leveraged critical technological progress in legged mobility funded by the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (DEVCOM ARL) and related military programs.

Gavin Kenneally, a former researcher at the University of Pennsylvania who worked on these military projects, stated that these foundational initiatives essentially served as the blueprint for Unitree’s first commercially scaled robots. Similarly, Ben Katz, an alumnus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Biomimetic Robotics Lab—a university consortium backed by U.S. military grants—pointed out that the dimensions of Unitree’s popular "Go" series robots are nearly identical, down to the millimeter, to the groundbreaking "Mini Cheetah" robot he helped develop.

While Unitree founder Wang Xingxing cited MIT's Cheetah research and U.S. Army-backed University of Pennsylvania papers in his 2016 master's thesis—and the underlying academic research was publicly available, meaning no direct illegality occurred in accessing the open-source data—the core issue runs deeper. Analysts point out that Washington is facing a structural dilemma as Beijing utilizes U.S. taxpayer-funded national security innovations without reciprocal collaboration or compensation.

In June, the U.S. Department of Defense added Unitree to its list of Chinese military companies, labeling it a contributor to China's defense industrial base. While this designation does not carry explicit economic sanctions, it restricts the U.S. military from utilizing Unitree technology. Unitree has consistently maintained that its robots are strictly intended for civilian and commercial applications. Representatives for Unitree, the Chinese State Council, and China’s Ministry of National Defense have declined to respond to media requests for comment regarding these allegations.

This robotics controversy mirrors ongoing intellectual property tensions in the semiconductor sector. According to South Korea's National Office of Investigation, foreign technology leak cases have steadily escalated, rising from 12 in 2022 and 22 in 2023 to 25 cases recorded between January and October of 2024 alone. Notable incidents include engineering personnel leaking critical 20-nanometer DRAM semiconductor process data and subsequently misusing proprietary information following overseas employment. In December of last year, former Samsung Electronics employees were formally indicted by prosecutors for transferring core DRAM technology to China's CXMT. Prosecutors estimated Samsung's direct financial damages at roughly 5 trillion won for 2024 alone, with total cumulative losses to the national economy projected to reach tens of trillions of won.

Reuters diagnosed the Unitree situation as a reflection of the broader, systemic challenges the United States faces in competing with China over critical, national-security-sensitive advanced technologies. Backed by heavy state subsidies, massive component manufacturing clusters, and a high tolerance for financial losses, Chinese corporations have successfully expanded market share across numerous sectors—including solar panels, drones, electric vehicles, and quantum communications—many of which were initially pioneered with U.S. government and military backing. As technological competition intensifies, policymakers in Washington and allied nations are increasingly pressured to fortify safeguards around sovereign research and development.

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