The American company Meta announced its acquisition of Manus, an artificial intelligence (AI) startup founded by a Chinese team and based in Singapore. After the acquisition, both co-founders of Manus reportedly faced travel restrictions upon returning to China. The U.S. House of Representatives issued a statement on this matter, but the Chinese Foreign Ministry did not respond, indicating China’s expanding regulatory control, according to experts.
On March 25, various media outlets including the Financial Times reported that Manus’ CEO Xiao Hong and Chief Scientist Ji Yichao were informed by the Chinese National Development and Reform Commission that they were not allowed to leave China due to regulatory review but could travel within the country.
During a press conference on March 26, when asked about the reports of Manus executives being restricted from leaving China, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian responded, saying he was not aware of the situation and suggested contacting the relevant Chinese authorities for inquiries.
Manus, a Chinese team-founded AI startup based in Singapore, introduced the world’s first “General AI Agent” product in March 2025. This technology allows for autonomous understanding of objectives, task deconstruction, tool invocation, and completion of complex workflows with minimal human intervention. Many tech giants, including Google, view this as the next stage of AI development.
Last year on December 30, Meta, the parent company of Facebook, announced the acquisition of Manus with the acquisition amount estimated to be between $2 billion to $3 billion. In January of this year, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce stated that it would conduct an assessment of the Meta-Manus acquisition to ensure compliance with relevant laws such as export control, technology import and export, and foreign investment regulations.
Yang Yikui, an assistant researcher at the National Security Institute of the Taiwan Institute for National Defense and Security Studies, told Dajiyuan that in recent years, many of Beijing’s laws aimed at businesses have strengthened government regulatory control. For example, the “Private Economy Promotion Law” passed in 2025 directly states that companies must adhere to the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party. Private enterprises engaging in overseas investments must not engage in activities that harm national security and interests, among other regulations.
He believes that this incident indicates China’s expansion of scrutiny over technology exports. By setting a precedent through the Manus case, even if a private company changes its registration location, if the company’s initial technology and talent were developed in China, it may still fall under Chinese jurisdiction. The Chinese authorities are attempting to deter founders of other innovative tech companies from moving sensitive AI assets overseas while also issuing a warning to Chinese AI talent.
The competition between the U.S. and China in the field of artificial intelligence is intense. The White House released a national legislative framework on March 20 to establish U.S. leadership in the field of artificial intelligence.
Wang Xiuwen, an assistant researcher at the Institute of Chinese Communist Military and Operational Concepts of the Taiwan Institute for National Defense and Security Studies, informed Dajiyuan that the U.S. holds a significant advantage in iterative development of Large Language Models (LLM) compared to China, which is reluctant to have its AI Agent innovations used by U.S. companies. However, the autonomous capabilities of AI Agents are based on a variety of different large model computing powers, and without strong and diverse models, having AI Agent alone is not sufficient.
She noted that from China’s recent trends with “Open Claw” and “Unloading Claw,” it is evident that there is a significant market demand for AI Agents in China. However, China considers Open Claw to have serious cybersecurity vulnerabilities. Therefore, “domestically produced, secure” AI Agents are the software products currently sought to be promoted within China, showing China’s reluctance to let these assets flow to U.S. companies.
Manus is not the first Chinese AI startup team based overseas; in 2022, the AI video generation platform HeyGen relocated its headquarters from Shenzhen to Los Angeles. Earlier reports from foreign media stated that hundreds of Chinese companies have quietly re-registered or re-incorporated in Southeast Asian countries to evade the increasing geopolitical risks between the U.S. and China by employing more local executives to appear less like a Chinese company. Even the controversial TikTok has consistently argued that it is not a Chinese company.
However, it is important to note that China’s National Intelligence Law passed in 2017 requires all organizations and individuals to unconditionally cooperate with the government’s intelligence work and maintain secrecy, raising concerns among foreign governments. Therefore, Manus’ proactive decision to separate itself from China and enter the global market has sparked widespread discussions.
Following reports of Manus’ two executives being restricted from leaving China, the U.S. House of Representatives’ Special Committee on U.S.-China Strategic Competition issued a statement, stating that this incident reveals there is no meaningful “private” technology company in China.
The statement said, “Even if companies seek globalization or withdraw from the Chinese market, the Chinese Communist Party can still maintain influence through regulatory review, ownership structures, and direct intervention. As artificial intelligence becomes a foundational technology, the U.S. must examine systems originating from China with clear eyes.”
Wang Xiuwen told Dajiyuan that the U.S. statement should be broadened to say, “Not just tech companies, there is fundamentally no meaningful ‘private’ company in China.”
She believes that these Chinese companies operating overseas are not typical “private enterprises” in capitalist societies but rather companies with private enterprise identities strictly regulated by the Communist Party. When American companies deal with Chinese enterprises, they should pay particular attention to these inherent differences and not assume they can lawfully acquire Chinese companies based on market rules. The Manus case highlights China’s oversight of “private enterprises” surpasses the imagination of American companies, especially in the AI domain crucial to U.S.-China competition.
The event where Manus’ founders were restricted from leaving China occurred before the expected meeting between President Trump and Xi Jinping.
The White House announced that President Trump will visit China and meet with Xi Jinping on May 14 to 15. However, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian did not confirm this during the press conference, stating only that “China and the U.S. are in communication regarding President Trump’s visit to China.”
As the Chinese political landscape is highly opaque, in accordance with its customary practices, details of such visits are often announced only a few days or even one or two days in advance.
Wang Xiuwen suggested that China might be prepared to discuss AI chip and AI technology export restrictions with the U.S. by imposing restrictions on Manus’ founders from leaving. While China does have rare earth chips, acquiring additional chips could give them leverage during negotiations.
Yang Yikui expressed that aside from the Manus incident, Beijing’s intimidation of more domestic technology companies within China will not significantly impact the overall outcome of the Trump-Xi meeting. As Meta’s acquisition of Manus amounted to approximately $2 billion, it may not be considered a huge amount in Trump’s eyes. The discussion between the U.S. and China may involve more high-level or broader topics.