The charm offensive continues
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg met with China's propaganda czar over the weekend, continuing his efforts to build goodwill in a country where Facebook and other social media are officially banned. According to China's Xinhua news agency, Zuckerberg met with senior Communist Party member Liu Yunshan on Saturday in Beijing, where the Facebook founder was due to attend an economic forum. According to state-run Xinhua, Liu said he hopes that Facebook will share its experience to spur the growth of other Chinese internet companies, though he also noted the importance of developing the sector "with Chinese characteristics."
The meeting with Liu may mark a shift in relations between Facebook and Chinese regulators. Facebook, Twitter, and other Western social media have long been blocked by the so-called Great Firewall in China, and Zuckerberg has been very public about his efforts to curry favor with the government. In 2014, he gave a 20-minute speech in Mandarin to students at a Beijing university, and reportedly urged Facebook employees to read a book called The Governance of China, written by President Xi Jinping.
Last week, the CEO caused a stir on Chinese social media after posting a photo of himself running in Beijing's Tiananmen Square on a day when smog levels soared. Some criticized Zuckerberg for not mentioning the 1989 crackdown on demonstrators at Tiananmen Square or the dangerous air pollution in his post.
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