The show was family-friendly. The robot danced, spun, and performed martial arts routines in front of children and adults in Shaanxi, China, on March 21, 2026. Then it turned toward the edge of the area, arms outstretched, and struck the child in the face before anyone could react.
The model involved is the Unitree G1: 35 kilograms, up to 43 degrees of joint freedom, capable of doing flips and flying kicks. The same machine that performed at China’s Spring Festival Gala before millions of viewers. The operators ran to stop it, but the robot kept carrying out its routine as if nothing had happened.
It is not an isolated case. In Macao, another Unitree frightened an elderly woman badly enough to hospitalize her. In Xinjiang, one lost control during a school performance. The question spreading across social media is just one: who is responsible when a research machine weighs the same as an adult person and operates among children?