Meta has cut its agentic AI startup Manus off from internal data systems and barred staff from using its tools, the clearest move yet toward unwinding the $2B acquisition it closed in December after Beijing ordered the deal reversed. China's economic planner ordered the reversal in April, ruling that Manus's 2025 move to Singapore, a structure critics call “Singapore washing,” could not shield a company rooted in Chinese tech and talent from Beijing's authority, and its co-founders have since been barred from leaving the country. Beijing is formalizing that reach with new outbound-investment rules effective July 1 that let regulators block or undo cross-border deals tied to Chinese-origin tech, talent, or data, no matter where a company is incorporated.
