China Set to Lift Travel Ban on Manus Founders as CEO Xiao Hong Returns to Singapore

Singapore has spent the past year as the unlikely backdrop to one of the messiest cross-border AI deals in memory, and the saga may finally be reaching its endgame. Manus, the agentic AI startup that moved its headquarters to Singapore in 2025, is close to having its founding team back in full control, with China expected to lift the travel restrictions that have kept its founders out of the country since regulators began probing Meta's US billion acquisition.

The Financial Times reported on Aug 15, citing people familiar with the matter, that Chinese regulators are preparing to lift the exit ban on Manus chief executive and co-founder Xiao Hong and other members of the founding team. Xiao Hong has told staff he plans to return to Singapore soon, where the company is based, as Manus nears the final resolution of its separation from Meta. The report signals that the regulatory process behind the breakup is winding down.

The context matters here. Meta bought Manus in December 2025 for US billion, in what looked like a straightforward bet on the agentic AI wave. But by April, Beijing had ordered the deal unwound as part of a broader tightening of scrutiny over US investment in Chinese-linked AI assets. The operational split is now complete, original investors including HSG, ZhenFund and Tencent are buying the company back at the same US billion price, and Tencent is reportedly in talks to become Manus's largest shareholder. The travel ban on the founders was one of the last open threads in that process.

For Singapore, the practical effect of the ban lift is a founding team that can actually be in the room. Manus built its Singapore base precisely to operate as an independent, globally focused agentic AI company, and having the CEO back on the ground changes what the startup can do, from hiring and partnerships to the customer conversations that are hard to run from a distance. It also closes a chapter in which Singapore found itself caught between US and Chinese regulators over a company that chose the city-state as its home.

Why it matters for Singapore: Manus is the highest-profile example of a Singapore-based AI company navigating a geopolitical collision, and its resolution reaffirms the city-state's role as neutral ground for global AI builders. The founders' return, together with the reported Tencent talks, suggests Manus intends to keep scaling from Singapore rather than retreating into either superpower's orbit. Watch for the formal completion of the Meta unwind and what Manus announces next from its Singapore base.