April 27, 2026 at 3:10 am HONG KONG (AP) — China on Monday blocked Meta’s acquisition of the artificial intelligence startup Manus, which has Chinese roots but is Singapore-based. In a short statement, China’s National Development and Reform Commission, the country’s top planning agency, said it was prohibiting a foreign acquisition of Manus and had required all the parties to withdraw from the deal. It did not specifically name Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram. The decision was made by the commission’s Office of the Working Mechanism for Security Review of Foreign Investment in accordance with Chinese laws and regulations, the statement said. It came after Chinese authorities said they were looking into the deal earlier this year. The commission did not elaborate on the reasons for the ban. Meta first announced that it was acquiring Manus in December in a rare case of a major U.S. tech group buying an AI company with strong links to China.…