Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has invited fresh criticism from China’s dissidents for what they call ‘brownnosing’ the Chinese government while attempting to enter into the country’s lucrative domestic market.
Zuckerberg sparked outrage in the Asian nation after he reportedly urged his employees to read a new book compiling speeches by Chinese President Xi Jinping.
With the attempt, dissidents allege that the Facebook chief executive is attempting to enter China’s domestic market, an endeavor that is becoming increasingly popular among American companies.
Experts say even though China’s top Internet regulator Lu Wei may not welcome the social networking giant to his land, but he’s certainly welcome at Facebook.
Lu, the minister of China’s Cyberspace Administration, had recently visited the campuses of American tech bigwigs like Facebook Inc, Amazon Inc and Apple Inc, a report and pictures posted on a Chinese government website on Monday showed.
Facebook has been blocked in Chin since 2009 and now Zuckerberg seems to be interested in entering the market of Asia’s largest and world’s third largest economy.
During his visit, Lu had reportedly friendly exchange of talks with the Facebook Inc founder in Mandarin.
Sources said it was at that meet when Lu noticed a copy of book “The Governance of China”, written by Chinese president Xi Jinping, in a pile on Zuckerberg’s desk.
“I also bought this book for my coworkers; I wanted them to learn about socialism with Chinese characteristics,” Zuckerberg reportedly told Lu.
Reports suggest Facebook is leaving no stone unturned to regain its status in China but the Asian country remains skeptical about entry of foreign companies, especially from America, in its domestic market with more than 600 million Internet users.
“China has always been very hospitable, but we can choose who enters our house. We could not allow any companies to enter China and make money while hurting the country.” Lu had told reporters in October this year.
Talking especially in case of Facebook, Lu had said, “I didn’t say Facebook could not enter China, but nor did I say that it could.”
Analysts belief China remains one of the largest obstacles to the longstanding vision of Zuckerberg to connect the world’s web population.
Share this:
