China has prevented the founders of Singapore-based AI startup Manus from leaving the country, according to a report in the Financial Times, raising fresh questions about whether the city-state can maintain its position as a safe haven for Chinese entrepreneurs seeking to internationalize their businesses.
The exit ban applies to the company's Chinese national founders, who had relocated Manus's corporate headquarters to Singapore while maintaining research and development operations in Shanghai and Shenzhen. The founders were informed they could not leave China pending an unspecified "investigation," according to The Straits Times, which confirmed the FT report.
The restrictions echo similar cases involving Chinese tech executives who have attempted to establish offshore entities, including the founders of TikTok parent ByteDance and AI research lab DeepSeek. Beijing has tightened controls on technology transfers, dual-use research, and capital outflows as tensions with Washington over semiconductor access and AI development have intensified.
For Singapore, the case exposes a fundamental tension in its strategy to position itself as Asia's premier tech hub. The city-state has attracted an estimated 5,000 Chinese startups and tech firms since 2020, offering political stability, rule of law, intellectual property protections, and access to international capital markets—advantages that Hong Kong has lost as Beijing tightens its grip.
But if China can effectively prevent founders from exercising the mobility that Singapore's value proposition promises, what exactly is the city-state offering?
"The whole pitch is that you can be based in Singapore, access Western markets and investors, and still do business in ," said , a venture capital investor who advises Chinese firms on Southeast Asian expansion. "But if says you can't leave, then 's legal protections don't matter."
