We discussed these matters extensively in my undergrad art history courses on Chinese and Silk Road visual and material culture. There's a lot of academic arguing and back and forth on these things. Much of the research and proposals are compelling, yet are still shoddy given a lack of clearer evidence or collaborating evidence. You also get into nationalist narratives when it comes to art history... the suggestion that some foreign entities influenced the creation of your cultural and historical treasures is... touchy. But we can discuss this briefly here. I'll copy and edit some notes and writings I did for my classes here.

The acrobats refer to these figures, specifically a “strongman”. As the rest of the terracotta army, they would have been sculpted from the mid to late 3rd century BC, for the Mausoleum of China’s first emperor, Qin Shi Huang, located just east of present-day Xi’an in the historical Qin capital Xianyang. They are made of terracotta, but unlike the mass-produced soldiers, the acrobats are suspected to be made and modeled individually. What’s remarkable about these specific figures is the vivid exhibition of the form of the human body and its attention to anatomy. Not only are they unclothed, with only a loincloth to cover the lower body, but the form, anatomy, and muscles also show an unprecedented amount of detail. Depictions of the nude were rare in Ancient China to begin with, where silk clothing offered a level of civility, status, and refinement that followed various early Chinese schools of thought. While other ancient civilizations outside of China may have depicted the nude human body to some extent, (India, Babylonia) none paid as much care or attention to the accuracy and natural beauty of the body as ancient Greece. With Alexander the Great’s eastern conquests and subsequent Hellenistic successor states, it would not be impossible for the newly unified Qin Chinese state to contact and be influenced by Central Asian Greek art. Indeed, while some nude figures may have been made after the Qin, such as with small dolls in the Han Dynasty (which would have been clothed by fabrics regardless), none paid as much detail to the body akin to Greek sculptures as the Qin did. The existence of the 12 Qin bronze statues further suggests some inspiration from outside forces, bronze crafting had long been developed in China while it was also used for figure making in the Hellenistic world. However the sheer size and monumentality of the Qin bronze statues and terracotta army are unique from Pre-Qin or Post-Qin dolls and figurines, once again more similar to life-size or larger Greek statues.

Problems and nuances arise in making these connections where there is no substantial evidence of Greek and Chinese interaction. Detailed as the acrobats may be, they cannot match the precision of the Greeks. Finally, the existence of a terracotta army reflects the martial and despotic values of the Legalist Qin State, yet the acrobats suggest a more playful view of power, where skill, dexterity, and physical strength might even correspond to Greek ideas of athletic and heroic qualities.

This is Professor Lukas Nickel's writings on the matter. Indeed, it has drawn controversy and response, for example here's a paper by Frederick Shih-Chung Chen addressing some of Nickel's claims.