Mark Zuckerberg is trying his hardest to get Facebook back into China, when you learn to speak Mandarin you’re trying pretty hard. Zuckerberg is pulling out all the stops to impress the Chinese government and its president, Xi Jinping. It was back in 2009 that Facebook was banned from China and that’s hundreds of millions of potential users that Facebook could be gaining ad revenue from. To further bolster his position with the Chinese government, it is being reported that Zuckerberg has begun reading President Jinping’s book (some calling it propaganda) “The Governance of China” and he’s buying copies for Facebook employees to read as well.
“I’ve also bought copies of this book for my colleagues,” Zuckerberg is quoted as saying. “I want them to understand socialism with Chinese characteristics.”
The book is a compilation of Xi’s “major works from November 15, 2012 to June 13, 2014,” according to a state-run website, including “79 speeches, talks, interviews, instructions and correspondence in 18 chapters.”
It’s fairly clear here that Zuckerberg is probably not going to turn to communism but he is trying to soften the dam that could unleash a flood of revenue for Facebook. One would have to believe that the Chinese government isn’t that naive and they know exactly what Zuckerberg is doing. So it remains to be seen, who is actually playing who. What do you think of Facebook’s attempts to gain favor from the Chinese government? Let us know in the comments below or on Google+, Facebook and Twitter.
Feature image courtesy of @fryan
lol pic.twitter.com/vaT6P2VPlZ
— Fergus Ryan (@fryan) December 8, 2014
Last Updated on November 27, 2018.
