Associate Dean Daryl Lim analyzes China’s expanding reach in AI deals

CARLISLE—Professor Daryl Lim, H. Laddie Montague Jr. Chair in Law and associate dean for research and strategic partnerships, authored a new commentary for ThinkChina examining China’s reported intervention in Meta’s acquisition of Manus, a Chinese-founded, Singapore-headquartered artificial intelligence (AI) company. The article explores how national security concerns are reshaping cross-border investment in frontier AI.

In the article, which you can read by clicking here, Lim argues that advanced AI companies can no longer assume that relocating overseas will place them beyond the regulatory reach of their country of origin. Using the Manus transaction as a case study, he explains how governments increasingly evaluate AI companies not only by legal domicile but also by their founders, technical lineage, data sources, talent, and strategic significance. The analysis draws on his scholarship and teaching at the intersection of intellectual property, artificial intelligence, competition policy, and global technology regulation.

The article, “Manus quagmire: The long arm of China’s cross-border strategic reach,” was published by ThinkChina on May 28, 2026. ThinkChina is an English-language digital publication focused on China and global affairs. Lim’s commentary situates the Manus matter within the broader contest among China, the United States, and Europe over AI capabilities, technology transfer, foreign investment screening, and the increasing politicization of cross-border technology transactions.

Daryl Lim is the H. Laddie Montague Jr. Chair in Law at Penn State Dickinson Law. He is also the Associate Dean for Research & Strategic Partnerships and Founding Director of the Intellectual Property (IP) Law and Innovation Initiative. At the university level, he is a co-hire at the Institute of Computational and Data Sciences and an affiliate at the Center for Socially Responsible Artificial Intelligence.

Professor Lim is an award-winning author, observer, and commentator on national and global trends in IP and competition policy and how they influence and are influenced by law, technology, economics, and politics. He helps policymakers, attorneys, corporate counsel, scholars, and the public understand the world around them. He is a founding member of the Global IP Alliance and its local chapters in Pennsylvania and Illinois. In addition, he serves as Co-Chair of the University Education Committee in the US IP Alliance.

In December 2022, the American Law Institute elected Professor Lim to its membership based on demonstrated excellence and outstanding professional achievement. In 2023, the US Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission recognized him as “a leading expert in antitrust law and economics” and the IAM Strategy 300, a guide to the industry pioneers with “exceptional skill sets, as well as profound insights into the development, creation, and management of IP value,” named him to its World’s Leading IP Strategists 2023 list. In 2024, he was appointed to the consultative group advising the United Nations Secretary General’s High-Level Advisory Body on Artificial Intelligence. In 2025, he received the IP Professor of the Year Award at the Global Intellectual Property, Artificial Intelligence & Technology Conclave & Awards.