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Zhou Xin

Coco Feng

Chinese authorities are considering whether to step in over Meta Platforms’ acquisition of Manus – an artificial intellligence agent developer with Chinese roots – amid concerns the deal could breach technology export controls and encourage more start-ups to relocate offshore, according to two sources.
One of the sources said officials, including at the Ministry of Commerce, were looking into the transaction and that the review could lead to action. The other said the chances of intervention were high because the Manus case could set an uncomfortable precedent for other Chinese AI companies to follow by moving their operations abroad.
Meta and Manus did not immediately respond to requests for comment. China’s commerce ministry did not respond to a faxed inquiry.
Meta’s reported US$2.5 billion price tag has buoyed some Chinese investors and entrepreneurs by offering a rare, high-profile cash exit.
But the deal has also raised eyebrows in Beijing, where academics and lawyers have debated whether Manus’ relocation from China to Singapore last summer – widely seen as a step to facilitate the transaction – may have run afoul of China’s technology export control regime.

Manus rose to fame in March last year after releasing what it described as the world’s first general AI agent – software that can complete tasks on a user’s behalf. The team initially operated in Beijing and Wuhan, but had moved to Singapore by mid-June 2025, laying off some China-based staff and shutting down its Chinese social media accounts.
Asked about the matter at a regular briefing last week, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian said the question should be directed to “the Chinese department in charge of the matter”.
If Chinese authorities publicly raise concerns about Manus’ relocation, it could complicate – or even derail – Meta’s bid for the start-up. The case could also set new benchmarks for how Beijing screens the overseas transfer of China-originated technologies.
In recent years, many Chinese big tech firms and start-ups have set up overseas subsidiaries in a trend known as chuhai, or “going to sea”, taking home-grown technology abroad. Beijing has been exploring ways to assert a say in cross-border transactions that involve Chinese technology, data, talent or markets.
Cui Fan, a professor at the University of International Business and Economics and chief expert at the China Society for World Trade Organization Studies, wrote over the weekend that authorities could intervene to determine “when, in what manner, and which technologies were transferred abroad by Manus’ onshore entities, including both natural persons and legal entities”.
Cui said there had been no confirmation that members of Manus’ core team had relinquished Chinese nationality, nor any indication they were no longer subject to Chinese jurisdiction.
He added that Manus’ mainland-registered parent, Butterfly Effect, remained under the founders’ control and that early-stage research and development work took place in China.
The Financial Times first reported on Wednesday that Beijing was weighing involvement.
Beijing has in recent years asserted itself more forcefully in mergers and acquisitions involving China or the Chinese market.
China updated its technology export controls in 2020 to cover certain algorithms, a change widely viewed as strengthening its legal tools to intervene in transactions after Washington pressured ByteDance to divest TikTok’s US operations.
Meta’s relationship with China has been uneasy for more than a decade. Facebook, its flagship social network, has been blocked in mainland China since 2009.
Founder Mark Zuckerberg later made repeated efforts to engage with the market, including learning Chinese, running through Tiananmen Square on a smoggy day – framing it as proof of his commitment to engaging with China – and joining an advisory board at Tsinghua University.
In 2018, Facebook even registered a subsidiary in Hangzhou, the capital of eastern Zhejiang province, with a capital base of US$30 million, though it was dissolved soon afterwards.


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The blockbuster Meta-Manus deal is cheering investors but worrying Beijing, where officials see a risky precedent for Chinese AI start-ups


The blockbuster Meta-Manus deal is cheering investors but worrying Beijing, where officials see a risky precedent for Chinese AI start-ups.


Beijing mulls intervention in Meta’s deal to buy Manus amid AI ‘brain drain’ fears

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}The blockbuster Meta-Manus deal is cheering investors but worrying Beijing, where officials see a risky precedent for Chinese AI start-ups

The blockbuster Meta-Manus deal is cheering investors but worrying Beijing, where officials see a risky precedent for Chinese AI start-ups