A robot serves glasses of red wine to brides and grooms during a group wedding at Siasun Robot & Automation Co Ltdin Shenyang, Liaoning province, on Jan 20, 2016. [Photo/CFP]

China now has few enterprises that can provide mass produced and reliable industrial robot components such as speed reducers, drive and control devices, as well as servomotors.

"Most of these components are still imported from foreign countries, whose steep tariffs increase the cost of robots," Hao of the China Robot Industry Alliance said.

For instance, speed reducers could account for about 30 percent of domestic robots' cost, compared with only 12 percent for similar Japanese robots, an industry resource said.