Why did they go?
CEO Xiao Hong and scientist Ji Yichao founded an artificial intelligence firm called Manus. After founding Manus in China, they moved it to Singapore. Then Manus received a $2 billion acquisition offer from Facebook-parent Meta. The owners accepted.
Next, Xiao Hong and Ji Yichao “were summoned to Beijing this month and questioned over a possible violation of foreign direct investment reporting rules related to the acquisition before being told they could not leave the country” (Washington Post, March 25, 2026)
They were in Singapore. The Chinese government summoned them to China. And—they went.
“They had already dissolved their China-based teams,” says Lei of Lei’s Real Talk. “Their official website blocked Chinese IP addresses. Their Chinese social media presence had been wiped clean. They moved their operation to Singapore. In many ways, they’re already a foreign company. And yet, when they were called back to Beijing for a meeting, they went. I don’t know why they went. And that decision may have cost them their company and their freedom.”
Perhaps Xiao and Ji had absorbed some of the talk by CCP propagandists and others about how the People’s Republic of China is not a threat to anybody and wishes only for a happy global future. Perhaps the Chinese government subtly or unsubtly threatened family members of theirs still in China.
Battle for core technologies
The Post:
Manus is a leading start-up in the fledgling field of AI “agents,” designed to carry out complex tasks beyond the capabilities of chatbots, including reading and writing files on a user’s computer, building apps and analyzing large datasets. China’s Ministry of Commerce in January launched an investigation into the acquisition, though it has not released details of how the deal may have violated Chinese laws….
Beijing is moving to tighten control over the country’s private AI industry. At its top annual political meeting this month, officials outlined a five-year plan that includes strengthening ties between private tech firms and the military, pledging to “win the battle for core technologies” amid competition with the U.S.
National Review says that “China’s crackdown on Manus signals a new phase of techno-authoritarian competition.”
Officially, the move is framed as a regulatory review, an investigation into whether the acquisition violated China’s foreign investment reporting rules or technology export controls. In reality, it signals something far more consequential: the emergence of a new “hostage strategy” in the U.S.–China AI competition.
This is not merely a business dispute. It is a geopolitical maneuver.
At stake is not just a company, but a new class of AI capability. Manus is not another chatbot startup. It specializes in autonomous AI agents, systems that can execute complex real-world tasks with minimal human oversight, from financial analysis to enterprise operations. In the evolving AI landscape, these agents represent the frontier of applied intelligence. Whoever leads in this domain will not simply build better software; they will shape the infrastructure of economic and strategic power in the coming decade.
Beijing understands this and is acting accordingly.
The reported restriction on Manus’s founders sends a clear signal: China will not passively allow top-tier AI talent and technology to flow into American hands, especially under conditions of intensifying geopolitical rivalry.
The author, Jianli Yang, seems to be suggesting that only now is the CCP moving into a more “coercive phase,” with “entrepreneurs, engineers, and founders…no longer merely economic actors [but also] strategic resources whose mobility can be restricted when national interests demand it.” The Manus episode is “qualitatively different” because it’s about more than “regulating technology flows”; it’s about “controlling people and using them as leverage.”
How long is now? Xiao Hong and Ji Yichao are trapped in China. In June 2025, The Wall Street Journal reported that “China Is Tracking Down Its Rare-Earth Experts—and Taking Away Passports,” a report and a policy noted in these pages by James Roth. In March 2025, employees of the Chinese AI company DeepSeek were forced to turn over their passports.
Also see:
NDTV World: “DeepSeek Asks Staff Not To Leave China, Takes Away Passports: Report” (March 17, 2025)
“The government has reportedly tightened regulations on the company to prevent sensitive information from being leaked and key employees from deserting it.”
