Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) startup Manus registered its China-facing AI assistant on Tuesday and received its first state media broadcast feature, highlighting Beijing’s strategy to support domestic AI firms that have garnered international recognition.
Following China’s DeepSeek’s impact on Silicon Valley by releasing AI models comparable to U.S. competitors at a significantly lower cost, Chinese investors are actively seeking the next domestic startup poised to disrupt the global tech landscape.
Manus has emerged as a potential contender. The company recently went viral on X by introducing what it claims is the world’s first general AI agent, capable of autonomous decision-making and task execution with reduced prompting compared to AI chatbots like ChatGPT and DeepSeek.
Beijing is now signaling its intent to back Manus’s domestic rollout, mirroring its support for DeepSeek’s success.
State broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) dedicated television coverage to Manus for the first time on Tuesday, releasing a video detailing the distinctions between its AI agent and DeepSeek’s AI chatbot.
The Beijing municipal government announced on Tuesday that the Chinese version of Manus’s AI assistant, Monica, has completed the necessary registration for generative AI applications in China, overcoming a key regulatory hurdle.
Chinese regulators mandate that all generative AI applications within the country adhere to stringent regulations, aimed partially at preventing the generation of content deemed sensitive or damaging by Beijing.
Last week, Manus announced a strategic partnership with the team behind tech giant Alibaba’s Qwen AI models.
This collaboration could significantly enhance the domestic deployment of Manus’s AI agent, which is currently accessible only via invite codes and faces a waiting list of 2 million users, according to the startup.
