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China blocks Meta's acquisition of AI startup Manus

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Re: China blocks Meta's acquisition of AI startup Manus

#321

Post by giwook »

mothballed wrote: post #308
giwook wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So were these founders found violating a child support order?I'm still unclear on what crime they actually committed and what they're being investigated for. Is it possible that they are merely pawns in a political dispute between two rival countries? It's one thing to block an acquisition because you don't want your rival to gain an advantage, an action which is not limited to the CCP. It's another thing to detain a…

"Missing" (but quite often only due to a clerical misreporting) a payment isn't facially criminal and isn't even established as "violation" without a contempt hearing where you can argue why you didn't actually violate it. So the passport denial is even looser than that. I'm just pointing out the bar isn't much different except dressed up in a think of the children meme. I'm not justifying either one.

Understood. I'd note that the difference is that with a missed payment, you can simply make that payment (which can be a relatively small one as you noted) and you're free and clear.

With these Chinese founders, I'm not sure it's quite so simple.

Re: China blocks Meta's acquisition of AI startup Manus

#322

Post by culi »

logicchains wrote: post #285
HappyPanacea wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure why you specified nation-states when this is just as likely to happen in any state.

Like me they probably assumed nation-state was just another word for state.

I wasn't actually trying to distinguish away from states but rather from nations. I understand "nation" to have a specific meaning centered around sovereignty within indigenous scholarship. I should've just used "state" but I didn't think it'd sound as edgy

Re: China blocks Meta's acquisition of AI startup Manus

#323

Post by bit-anarchist »

RobertoG wrote: post #270
bit-anarchist wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The media is almost daily full of China scares That gets repeated a lot. Is there any source? > there is certainly a side that is extremely aggressive an can't conceive that others can have their own interests. And it's not the Chinese. Ask the Taiwanese about it. Or most countries dealing with border disputes with the PRC.

The Taiwanese? This is actually a perfect example of what I was saying. Talking about 'Taiwan' and 'border disputes with the PRC' meanwhile the USA is doing a maritime blockade of Cuba and Iran. And that it's without talking about bombing countries or military deployed thousand of miles away from their borders, of God forbid, unconditional support to Israel, who just displaced one and a half million people. But, let'…

Whataboutism. You said that only USA couldn't care for other countries' interests, so I showed China doing the same. To parody you:

"But, let's forget about all those small details, don't you see how the Americans are very bad?"

Re: China blocks Meta's acquisition of AI startup Manus

#324

Post by Saline9515 »

Daishiman wrote: post #309
Saline9515 wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you point to this month's article then so we have a sample?

Nah I prefer to discuss with people who have some basic literacy or googling skills because if you search for "economist predicting the fall of china" you'll find both their articles and the commentary surrounding it. It ain't that hard!

I'm asking because I read regularly the Economist and don't feel that it's a true statement. For instance, the latest Chaguan column is quite balanced: https://www.economist.com/china/2026/04/27/xi-jinping-wants-...

So yeah, if you have wold claims, you better back them with sources.

Re: China blocks Meta's acquisition of AI startup Manus

#325

Post by [deleted] »

Daishiman wrote: post #309
Saline9515 wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you point to this month's article then so we have a sample?

Nah I prefer to discuss with people who have some basic literacy or googling skills because if you search for "economist predicting the fall of china" you'll find both their articles and the commentary surrounding it. It ain't that hard!

[deleted]

Re: China blocks Meta's acquisition of AI startup Manus

#326

Post by bit-anarchist »

Daishiman wrote: post #309
Saline9515 wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you point to this month's article then so we have a sample?

Nah I prefer to discuss with people who have some basic literacy or googling skills because if you search for "economist predicting the fall of china" you'll find both their articles and the commentary surrounding it. It ain't that hard!

The burden of proof is on the claimaint, you. Don't push your due dilligence onto others.

Re: China blocks Meta's acquisition of AI startup Manus

#327

Post by bit-anarchist »

culi wrote: post #250
rtpg wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> After a $75 million fundraising round led by U.S. venture firm Benchmark in May 2025, Manus shut its China offices in July, laying off dozens of employees. It then moved its operations to Singapore. The company itself was based in mainland China less than 12 months ago.

Yeah if an American tech firm had been working in the US for 5 years and then tried to close all US offices down and move its IPs and tech to a different country so that it can sell out to Alibaba or Bytedance, I'm sure the US would react in the same exact way. The sinophobia in this thread is ridiculous. Whether you agree or disagree with what China is doing, nothing is happening that wouldn't also happen in the US.

What sinophobia? I haven't seen anyone here talking shit about chinese indivuduals. Or are they trashing China (the nation-state)? If we count that as xenophobia, is any unjust criticism of USA "americanphobia"? If so, fine, but I'd rather not anthropomorphize megacorps with monopolies on violence.

Re: China blocks Meta's acquisition of AI startup Manus

#328

Post by Daishiman »

bit-anarchist wrote: post #326
Daishiman wrote: post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nah I prefer to discuss with people who have some basic literacy or googling skills because if you search for "economist predicting the fall of china" you'll find both their articles and the commentary surrounding it. It ain't that hard!

The burden of proof is on the claimaint, you. Don't push your due dilligence onto others.

If I were discussing a formal argument in debate club sure. I don't do googling for others when the first 10 results in google for this is either source articles from The Economist of a half dozen forum threads commenting the same thing for the past 5 years.

Re: China blocks Meta's acquisition of AI startup Manus

#329

Post by bit-anarchist »

8note wrote: post #171
bit-anarchist wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wrong how? It is your comment that is missing the point. The contention isn't whether USA has export control (you are the one who brought it up), it's whether USA has actually prevented a company from being sold overseas by detaining their owners. Are you trying to push a red herring?

> it's whether USA has actually prevented a company from being sold overseas by detaining their owners. notably china isnt doing this either: they are barring exit, not detaining, and the reason for barring exit was not reported, so its a stretch to say that its to prevent the sale of the company overseas. The US: - makes broad claims of jurisdiction - has export control, which is listed in the article as a potential…

Although it's true that there's no stated direct link between barring the CEO's exit and Manus's deal, it's not that much of a stretch to say that, specially given China's priors.

Still, I'll concede since that's not what's relevant to me. I'm more curious about the claim that USA would do the same. I can see congress calling the CEO to testify, but keep them in the country until the government is satiafied? How? AFAIK congress has no such power, and the executive may try, and they might be struck down by the courts.

While US has export controls, this wouldn't be a company incorporated, or running, for that matter, in the US (so the Supermicro already doesn't qualify). It would be a company, say, incorporated in the UK. Even if the company started in the US, this, AFAIK, would be unprecedented. Hence the relevance of showing a prior case.

And, make no mistake, I'm not here to say USA is better than China, but these "China is just doing what USA does" claims are getting ridiculous.

Re: China blocks Meta's acquisition of AI startup Manus

#330

Post by culi »

Saline9515 wrote: post #324
Daishiman wrote: post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nah I prefer to discuss with people who have some basic literacy or googling skills because if you search for "economist predicting the fall of china" you'll find both their articles and the commentary surrounding it. It ain't that hard!

I'm asking because I read regularly the Economist and don't feel that it's a true statement. For instance, the latest Chaguan column is quite balanced: https://www.economist.com/china/2026/04/27/xi-jinping-wants-... So yeah, if you have wold claims, you better back them with sources.

I also regularly keep up with The Economist and other western news outlets and I completely agree with GP's impression that we see a "China is doomed" opinion piece every other month. Same with geopolitical youtubers.

Obviously none of us are committed enough to this internet discussion to do a formal study to prove our impressions but I think the majority of regular readers would also agree. Asking for sources for what is common knowledge is just a silly way to shut down discussion instead of engaging with it

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