CHINA Law and Practice Contributed by: Liu Cheng, Li Yumeng, Ye Hongtao and Jiang Hanxue, King & Wood
Review Guidelines and the Non-Horizontal Merger Review Guidelines provide that antitrust enforcement authorities may request that parties to the transac - tion provide information on the government subsidies received when there is evidence indicating that gov - ernment subsidies may raise competition concerns. In addition, the Anti-Subsidy Regulations of the Peo - ple’s Republic of China also regulate relevant issues, stipulating that the Trade Remedy Investigation Bureau under MOFCOM has the jurisdiction to investi - gate relevant conducts if subsidies granted by foreign government authorities have resulted in substantial harm or threat to domestic industries. NSR Regime According to the Foreign Investment Law and NSR Measures, foreign investments falling into the follow - ing categories will be subject to an NSR review: • investments in the military industry, fields support - ing the military industry and other fields relating to the security of national defence, and investments in areas surrounding military facilities and military industry facilities; and • a foreign investor acquiring control over impor - tant agricultural products, important energy and resources, important equipment manufactur - ing, important infrastructure, important transport services, important cultural products and services, important information technology and internet products and services, important financial services, key technologies and other important fields relating to national security.
For the above-mentioned foreign investments, for - eign investors must submit the NSR filing to the NSR working mechanism office established by the State Council (“NSR Office”) prior to implementation of the transaction. For the purpose of an NSR, the term “foreign invest - ment” refers to investment activities carried out by foreign investors directly or indirectly within China, including in the following circumstances: • where foreign investors invest, solely or jointly with other investors, in new projects or in establishing enterprises in China; • where foreign investors acquire equity or assets of domestic enterprises by way of merger or acquisi - tion; or • where foreign investors make investments in China in any other form. For these foreign investments, foreign investors must submit the NSR filing to the NSR Office prior to the implementation of the transaction. On 27 April 2026, the Office of the Working Mecha - nism for Security Review of Foreign Investment of the NDRC issued a decision to prohibit the acquisition of Manus by Meta and required the transaction to be revoked. The transaction was announced on 29 December 2025. The national security concerns of the transaction were not disclosed. Based on public information, the concerns behind the prohibition may be the transfer of critical technologies and data to an overseas company.
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