China is telling Meta to drop it.
In March, CEO Xiao Hong and scientist Ji Yichao, founders of what was first a China-based and then a Singapore-based AI tech firm, Manus, were summoned to China after having sold the company for $2 billion to Meta, parent firm of Facebook. After returning, Xiao and Ji were subjected to an exit ban, prohibited from leaving the country.
A National Review writer said that China’s actions amounted to a “hostage strategy” in the AI competition with the United States.
Now the People’s Republic is ordering Meta to unacquire what has become a Singapore-based operation (The New York Times, April 27, 2026).
The Chinese government said on Monday that it would require Meta’s acquisition of Manus, a Singapore-based artificial intelligence company with Chinese founders, to be unwound, in a move that could chill other Chinese entrepreneurs from seeking tie-ups with foreign partners….
The National Development and Reform Commission, a high-level ministry that oversees economic planning and plays a central role in setting China’s A.I. policy, said on Monday that it had decided to prohibit foreign investment in Manus, and instructed the parties involved to withdraw the acquisition.
It is not clear how such a transaction would be unwound. Meta has described the two teams as “deeply integrated.” Members of the Manus team have been working alongside colleagues from Meta at the company’s office in Singapore, according to two people familiar with the operation who were not authorized to talk publicly….
Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The company previously said that the transaction had fully complied with applicable law.
Is the Chinese Communist Party willing to start a war with Singapore if Meta ignores the nonsensical order? I doubt it. So Meta should just ignore this.
But it isn’t. The Wall Street Journal reports that “Meta Platforms is preparing to have to unwind its acquisition of the artificial-intelligence startup Manus after China banned the transaction on national-security grounds Monday, according to people familiar with the matter.”
Meanwhile, China may well succeed in intimidating other successful Chinese firms into staying put. “Investors with stakes in Chinese AI companies said Beijing’s Monday order serves as a warning to any startup seeking to emulate Manus.”
