According to Odaily Planet Daily, the Chinese government is taking punitive measures against employees related to Meta's $2 billion acquisition of Manus. Manus is an artificial intelligence startup company headquartered in Singapore with a Chinese background. Officials from China's National Development and Reform Commission summoned Meta and Manus executives last week to express concerns about the deal, two people familiar with the matter said.
The scope of the Chinese government's action is unclear, but it appears to include restricting Manus executives from traveling from China to Singapore, people familiar with the matter said. Meta spokesman Andy Stone said that the transaction fully complies with relevant laws and regulations, and the Manus team is now deeply integrated into Meta.
In January, Chinese officials said they were investigating whether the deal violated Chinese rules on technology export approvals. The matter comes at a sensitive period in U.S.-China relations. U.S. President Trump was originally scheduled to visit Beijing at the end of this month to meet with Chinese leaders, but Trump said on Monday that he had asked China to postpone the visit. Wang Shengyu, a research associate at the Asia Society Policy Institute, believes that the Chinese government's review of Meta may be aimed at accumulating leverage before trade negotiations and also sending a signal to Chinese artificial intelligence researchers, warning them not to follow Manus's approach.