China's cyberspace admin. chief visits Facebook, Apple, Amazon
互联网信息办公室主任出访硅谷

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is again making the headlines here in China, this time for his interest in Chinese books.

During a recent visit by China’s top Internet regulator Lu Wei to Silicon Valley, which included a tour of Facebook’s offices by Zuckerberg himself, who reportedly talked to Lu in Mandarin, Lu was delighted to find on Zuckerberg’s desk an English-language edition of a President Xi Jinping’s book The Governance of China.

And China’s social networks were immediately awash with comments. Many were delighted to see what they construe as an attempt by Zuckerberg to better understand China.

But others questioned whether it was a just another attempt at bettering relations with Chinese authorities.

Lu also met with Apple CEO Tim Cook and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.

Of Apple’s US$37.4 billion sales in the April through June quarter, 16 percent were in China, and Amazon China ranks fourth on the Internet Retailer China 500 list.

While Facebook still has no business in China, it seems Zuckerberg wants very much to change that.