When the AI start-up Manus moved its headquarters to Singapore last year, it was following hundreds of other Chinese companies that have come to see the city-state as a launchpad for global expansion — and a way to win Beijing's approval to do business beyond China's borders. The practice has become so common it has a nickname: 'Singapore washing.' Less than a year later, however, China blocked Meta's proposed $2bn acquisition of Manus, arguing the firm was still effectively Chinese and that any sale required Beijing's sign-off. The decision, coming as Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump negotiate an extension to their trade truce, raises sharp questions about whether Singapore still offers a sustainable path for Chinese companies.
For foreign buyers eyeing Chinese technology, the Manus case is a reminder that incorporating in Singapore is no longer a regulatory shield. As HK Park, who heads the investment-screening practice at advisory firm Crumpton Global, put it, a Singapore address still requires national-security vetting of the actual target. The Singapore government, for its part, is highly sensitive to the 'Singapore washing' tag and to how Chinese companies use the city-state — especially when their behaviour risks angering two of its closest trading partners, China and the United States.
In 2024, former prime minister Lee Hsien Loong said Chinese companies were welcome to set up in the city so long as they were upfront about their origins. More recently, opposition MP Andre Low captured the political sensitivity in parliament, asking whether Manus's relocation had been opportunistic — taking advantage of Singapore's business reputation while casting its Chinese roots aside. Singapore's Ministry of Trade and Industry declined to comment, but from a US perspective the 'Singapore washing' template was already fraying before Manus made headlines.
The scale of the trend is striking. Chinese companies last year overtook the United States as the largest source of investment in Singapore — not only because of the city's neutrality, but because of intensifying US scrutiny of companies tied to China. Chinese firms accounted for just over half the value of new business set-ups in the city-state, up roughly 27% from the previous year. Several of China's biggest tech companies — including Tencent, Alibaba and Huawei — have built significant Singapore presences. ByteDance, parent of TikTok and arguably the most politically exposed of all, occupies several floors at One Raffles Quay, a landmark office tower whose façade prominently bears its logo. The fast-fashion retailer Shein has retreated from an earlier plan to fully 'de-Chinafy' itself after Chinese regulators demanded approval for any overseas IPO.
For smaller firms, however, the picture is harder. 'The Singapore-washing strategy appears to be more effective for small firms but less successful for well-known tech players,' said Feng Qu, head of economics at Nanyang Technological University. Established companies in politically sensitive sectors — AI, quantum computing, fintech — could still find Singapore worth the effort, said Matthias Hendrichs, a Singapore-based adviser to AI start-ups. His advice to founders raising global capital from China was blunt: leave the mainland early, before you are too visible to escape quietly. That, he added, is the future of Singapore washing — and, as the Manus saga shows, an increasingly contested one.
Move your AI startup's headquarters from Beijing to Singapore, sell it to Meta for $2bn, exit cleanly. That was the plan — until China killed it and exposed a loophole the entire tech world had been quietly using.
When AI startup Manus moved its headquarters from China to Singapore last year, it was following a well-worn path: hundreds of Chinese companies have rebranded themselves as Singaporean to dodge geopolitical scrutiny and tap global investors. The practice even has a nickname — 'Singapore washing.'
Less than a year later, Beijing blocked Meta's $2bn acquisition of Manus, arguing it was still a Chinese company that needed government approval to sell. The timing is awkward: Xi Jinping and Donald Trump are negotiating an extension to their trade truce, and Beijing's move suggests the regulatory escape hatch through Singapore may be closing.
'Singapore washing' is essentially a corporate costume change — but Beijing is now demanding to see what's under the costume.
If you're eyeing a career in tech, finance, law or international business, this is the world you're walking into: even 'private' company decisions get filtered through US–China rivalry. The apps on your phone (TikTok, Shein, Temu) and the AI tools your future employer uses will increasingly be shaped less by what's technically possible and more by which governments will allow which deals to happen.
Singapore has spent a decade marketing itself as the neutral Switzerland of Asia — a safe place for both Western and Chinese capital. The Manus episode tests whether that neutrality is real or just a useful fiction. Watch for two second-order effects: Chinese founders building in Singapore from day one rather than relocating later, and Western acquirers running far deeper due-diligence on any startup with Chinese DNA. Expect more blocked deals before the rules become clear.