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Meta's Manus deal highlights China's AI challenge, regulatory gaps

By MLex Staff ( January 6, 2026, 08:15 GMT | Comment) -- Meta Platform’s blockbuster acquisition of Manus appears straightforward: A US tech giant buys a promising artificial intelligence startup. But the deal exposes a troubling pattern for Beijing — Chinese-developed AI innovations and the talent behind them ending up in American hands, in ways that existing regulations may not fully capture. The transaction cuts against a central goal of China’s new Five-Year Plan, which seeks to seize "commanding heights" in applied AI including through talent cultivation.Meta Platform’s blockbuster acquisition of Manus appears straightforward: A US tech giant buys a promising artificial intelligence startup. But the deal exposes a troubling pattern for Beijing — Chinese-developed AI innovations and the talent behind them ending up in American hands, in ways that existing regulations may not fully capture....

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