Before Beijing formally blocked Meta’s roughly $2 billion acquisition of the AI startup Manus, it first made sure the company’s two top executives couldn’t leave the country.
In March, Chinese authorities summoned Manus CEO Xiao Hong and chief scientist Ji Yichao to a meeting in Beijing. Both men were based in Singapore, where Manus had moved its headquarters nine months earlier. They were questioned by officials from the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) over what regulators framed as possible violations of foreign investment reporting rules.
