The China Humanoid Supply Chain: A Complete Guide

China didn't just build the world's most humanoids — it built the most complete supply chain for them. Unitree alone shipped over 20,000 humanoids with a global share above 30%. Under every one of them sits a domestic component ecosystem that has, in a few years, turned "bottleneck" after "bottleneck" into commodity hardware. This guide maps all of it.

The component map

A humanoid joint stack runs: motor → encoder → reducer → screw/actuator, with force and tactile sensors at the contact points, a LiDAR/camera head, and a dexterous hand on the end. Ten guides below — one per component, each with the leaders and the numbers.

1 · Reducers (harmonics + planetary + RV)

Reducers multiply torque. Harmonics own the precise wrist work, planetary carries the heavy legs and waist, RV bridges the industrial heritage. China's leaders: Leaderdrive (harmonic), Zhongda Leader (all three classes — Unitree's #1 supplier under a 3.2B RMB contract), Shuanghuan (RV).

→ Read: China's Harmonic Drive Suppliers
→ Read: China's Planetary Reducer Suppliers
→ Read: China's RV Reducer Suppliers

2 · Actuators

The joint itself. Inovance is the servo king and Optimus' early China supplier (10B+ RMB deal); Wolong, Moons' and HCFA build the frameless torque motors and integrated modules; Chinese costs undercut imports by 30-40%.

→ Read: China's Humanoid Actuator Suppliers

3 · Linear motion: planetary roller screws

The linear actuators hidden inside legs and torso. Once a Bosch/Rollvis monopoly, now Wuzhou Xinchun, Hengli and Best scale production — and the price is collapsing as fast as humanoid volumes grow.

→ Read: China's Planetary Roller Screw Suppliers

4 · Encoders

The eyes of every joint — up to 54 per robot. Inovance shipped 1.24M units in 2025; HCFA packs a 12mm magnetic encoder at 17-23 bit; Yuheng pushes optical code discs past Heidenhain's wall.

→ Read: China's Encoder Suppliers

5 · Coreless motors

The heart of every finger. Moons' is the Optimus dexterous-hand supplier at a third of Maxon's cost; Zhaowei ships the ZWHAND; prices fell 67% as domestic volume took off.

→ Read: China's Coreless Motor Suppliers

6 · Dexterous hands

The terminal that made Chinese humanoids famous. Inspire Robots and PaXini's DexH lead; micro motors, sensors and tendon drives combine in a 20+ DOF package — a category China effectively invented at scale.

→ Read: China's Dexterous Hand Suppliers

7 · Force & tactile sensors

The sense of touch. Blue Dot owns ~73% of humanoid six-axis force; Kunwei leads smart-robot force sensing at 53%; PaXini and Hanwei build the flexible skins. Touch went from 90% imported to 100% domestic in eight years.

→ Read: China's Force & Tactile Sensor Suppliers

8 · LiDAR

The eyes. Hesai, RoboSense and Innovusion turned solid-state LiDAR into a price war China won — the same components now ride on robot heads and industrial AGVs.

→ Read: China's LiDAR Suppliers

Why the supply chain is the moat

China's edge isn't any single component — it's that all of them live under one roof, within one logistics network, at prices 30-67% below imports. When Unitree cuts humanoid pricing by double digits year after year, the supply chain absorbs it. Competitors abroad buy components one by one; China's makers buy the whole stack.

What to watch next

• Cost per robot — component prices falling 30-67% as volumes scale.
• Vertical integration — motor + encoder + reducer under one maker (Inovance, HCFA, Zhongda).
• Standard-setting — China's robot competitions making force sensing a judging standard.

This is the master map. Bookmark it, and check the company database for profiles of every firm named above.