A global scramble to make humanoid robots is gearing up to be the 21st century's space race

• Humanoid robots are symbols of power and technological capability, a geopolitics expert says.
• China and the US are going head-to-head `to mass produce them, like a 21st-century space race.
• But other countries, including Saudi Arabia and Italy, are also trying to get in on the action.

The space race, an epic showdown between the US and the Soviet Union, epitomized the quest for scientific dominance and the battle for geopolitical supremacy in the 20th century.

It conjured up legendary imagery of intercontinental missiles piercing the skies, animals being launched into the earth's orbit, and Neil Armstrong's historic moonwalk.