[Hello, Professor. We are here in Kazakhstan.]

[Nice to meet you. Let's go over what you've done and look into the details of the patient's case.]

This is a scene from a kidney tumor surgery.

A doctor stands next to the patient in Kazakhstan, while two other doctors located in France and China respectively operate consoles from their own locations, performing the surgery together as a trio.

This is a so-called "transcontinental" remote surgery using "Candos," a surgical robot made by a Chinese company.

[Professor Fushan, it's your turn. (Yes.)]

We visited the company that manufactured this surgical robot.

Founded in 2013, the company has established three factories and 16 robotic surgery training centers in about a decade.

Featuring high-resolution 3D screens, highly flexible robotic arms, and an open console that frees doctors from having to bury their faces, it is challenging the U.S. company "da Vinci," which dominates the global surgical robot market.

[Liu Zigang / Sagebot Director: (The open console) reduces neck and back fatigue for doctors performing long surgeries. It also allows outsiders to easily observe the doctor's surgical process.]

[Choi Un / Beijing Correspondent: When performing surgery, doctors actually look at screens like this. While it may look quite blurry to the naked eye, wearing these 3D glasses makes the screen extremely clear and noticeably reduces the sense of distance.]

There are about a dozen Chinese surgical robot companies challenging da Vinci's dominance. However, experts note that a significant technological gap remains with da Vinci, which holds over 700 technology patents, and that Chinese firms still fall short of overcoming da Vinci's long-accumulated clinical data, doctors' proficiency, and robust supply chain.

For this reason, some aspects of their promotion focus more on remote surgery—something da Vinci does not currently do—rather than technical advantages.

Nevertheless, backed by the Chinese government's aggressive push for localization policies and fierce competition among domestic companies, projections suggest they will narrow the gap in the near future.

Simultaneous Remote Surgery for Overseas Patients... Rapidly Growing Chinese "Surgical Robots" (8 News, July 28, 2026)

(Reported by Choi Un | Produced by Bae Jun-hwi | Camera Filming by Choi Deok-hyeon | Video Editing by Jeon Min-gyu | Design by Choi Jin-hoe | Produced by SBS Digital News)