In the quiet machinery of great-power rivalry, humanoid robots have become the latest contested ground between the United States and China. The FCC's new import restrictions on foreign-made advanced robotic devices — aimed, without naming names, squarely at Chinese manufacturers who dominate the global market — drew an immediate warning from Beijing that patience has its limits. As a September summit between Trump and Xi approaches, the question is no longer simply who builds the better machine, but whether two nations so deeply intertwined can govern their competition before it governs them.