chinese government makes its first move in the ai war against the usa

china has blocked meta’s $2bn acquisition of ai group manus, saying the deal facilitated the illegal leakage of strategic technology to the us

regulators said the transfer violated export control and technology transfer rules, arguing manus’s core ai agents were developed in china and remain subject to chinese oversight even after the move to singapore

beijing also seems to be cracking down on “singapore-washing” – sending a message that relocating offshore won’t help chinese founders bypass scrutiny or move strategic tech and talent abroad

if beijing is drawing this line on manus, it could also chill foreign capital going into deepseek, which rumors say may be looking to raise money – especially notable as deepseek has been signaling global ambitions

hard to see this as anything but politics as much as regulation – another escalation in the us-china ai power game