This Feb 20, 2020 photo shows robots working at a plant of Sany Heavy Industry in Changsha, central China's Hunan province. (CHEN ZEGUO / XINHUA)

BEIJING – China's industrial robot production rose 16.9 percent year on year in May to 17,794 units, official data showed.

In the January-May period this year, China produced 72,619 units of industrial robots, up 6.7 percent from the same period last year, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed.

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In 2019, the country's industrial robot production totaled about 177,000 units, down 3.1 percent from the previous year.

China strives to upgrade its labor-intensive manufacturing sector through technological innovation as it faces a shrinking working-age population and increasing labor costs.

READ MORE: China to intensify robotics upgrade

In 2016, the country issued guidelines vowing to expand the use of robots in industries such as automobile manufacturing, electronics, home appliances, aviation, textiles and chemical.