Experts criticize China's halt of Meta's $2 billion acquisition of Manus: shell company relocation to evade regulations, ultimately impossible to achieve the goal

Deep Tide TechFlow News, April 29th, according to CCTV News reports, the Office of the Mechanism for Security Review of Foreign Investment lawfully made a prohibition decision on the foreign acquisition of the Manus project, requiring the parties to revoke the transaction. Manus was originally developed by China Butterfly Effect Company, and after its release in March 2025, it quickly became popular overnight. In June of the same year, the company moved its headquarters to Singapore and ceased domestic operations. In December 2025, it was announced that US Meta would acquire it for about 2 billion US dollars.

Researcher Zhou Mi from the Ministry of Commerce Research Institute stated that Manus transferred the project to Singapore through capital and corporate transfer methods and then sold it to a US company, which raises suspicions of deliberately evading regulation. If such practices are left unchecked, more companies may follow suit, harming national development interests and security. Zhou Mi emphasized that China has always maintained an open attitude toward foreign investment but takes a cautious stance on sensitive investments involving key technologies and data security, “Maliciously evading regulation in this way ultimately fails to achieve the intended purpose.”