China Made Robotics a State Religion. Europe Is Still Praying to the Market. China's 15th Five-Year Plan enshrines robotics and 'embodied intelligence' as core national strategic pillars — codifying what the numbers already show: 54% of global robot installations and over 2 million operational units. Europe's policy response, anchored by a €174 million EU work programme and falling installation numbers, looks structurally mismatched. This is no longer a commercial competition that market forces can correct. ## What happened in China China's National People's Congress convened in Beijing the week of March 14, 2026 to review the draft outline of the 15th Five-Year Plan — the country's economic and strategic blueprint for 2026 to 2030. The document runs 141 pages. The term 'artificial intelligence' appears more than 50 times. And for the first time in the history of Chinese state planning, a concept called 'embodied intelligence' — 具身智能, the integration…