{"text":[[{"start":5.35,"text":"There was little detail in the brusque one-line statement with which China this week retrospectively banned Meta’s $2bn acquisition of artificial intelligence app Manus. But the message to Chinese entrepreneurs and early-stage investors was clear: keep your AI technology at home."}],[{"start":23.950000000000003,"text":"The team behind Manus developed the AI agent in China, but moved to Singapore in mid-2025 after receiving a major investment from US venture capital firm Benchmark — a shift that prompted some Chinese online media to call the developers “defectors”. The sale in December of the now Singaporean venture to Facebook’s US owner Meta was seen by Chinese officials to be “conspiratorial”. Beijing has now ordered it to be unwound."}],[{"start":52.650000000000006,"text":"The ruling looks likely to chill foreign investment in Chinese tech start-ups, making it harder for their early-stage investors to exit and closing off one route to growth. It is also likely to deter “Singapore-washing”, the practice of moving headquarters and operations offshore in order to avoid restrictions on access to markets and technologies imposed on Chinese companies by the US and its allies."}],[{"start":77.15,"text":"Beijing’s motivations are clear. US efforts to use such restrictions to maintain tech supremacy have only strengthened China’s determination to develop its capabilities in sectors such as AI and semiconductors. Anxiety about the loss of Manus reflects its considerable success in doing so, even if opinions vary on how advanced the app actually is. A desire to hold on to leading companies is understandable, and President Xi Jinping has stressed the need to “strike a balance between openness and security” when it comes to tech, even if the latter is clearly the bigger priority. “We must . . . move faster to achieve greater self-reliance and strength in science and technology,” he said in a speech published last year."}],[{"start":117,"text":"Still, there will be a cost to both sides from the decoupling of the Chinese and US tech sectors. Beijing is hardly short of capital to fund technology start-ups, but it lacks the skills and experience of US venture capital. "}],[{"start":130.55,"text":"Its opaque handling of the Manus-Meta deal also adds to regulatory uncertainty that is a drag on innovation. Travel restrictions imposed on Manus’s chief executive Xiao Hong and chief scientist Ji Yichao, who were told in March they could not leave China, smack of a heavy-handed approach that risks discouraging the entrepreneurs on which future success depends."}],[{"start":154.10000000000002,"text":"Monday’s ruling by China’s National Development and Reform Commission also raises questions about the institutions in charge of regulating tech sector links with the rest of the world. The NDRC’s traditional role is setting out and coordinating broad economic and development strategy, but it has become increasingly involved in regulatory enforcement in areas such as data, AI and chips. The shift blurs lines of authority with government ministries and agencies. It also contrasts with the commission’s stated goal of focusing “primarily on managing macro matters” and minimising “direct government intervention in market activities”."}],[{"start":192.90000000000003,"text":"Whichever department in Beijing calls the shots, the move against the Meta-Manus deal highlights the growing barriers between the tech sectors of China and the US. As well as making life more difficult for companies and investors, this could further complicate already faltering efforts to work towards global regulation of AI, one of the biggest policy challenges of our time. Given current geopolitics, some degree of tech decoupling was probably inevitable. But any reduction of co-operation between these two great engines of global innovation is regrettable all the same."}],[{"start":232.55000000000004,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1777432804_4248.mp3"}