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 Lu, the minister of China's Cyberspace Administration, recently
toured the campuses of U.S. tech giants Facebook Inc, Apple Inc and
Amazon Inc, according to a report and pictures posted on a Chinese
government website on Monday.
In friendly exchanges that belied Facebook's status in China, where
it has been blocked since 2009, Lu and Facebook Inc founder Mark
Zuckerberg greeted each other in Mandarin and with broad smiles,
according to the report, which did not say when, or why, the visit
took place.
When Lu noticed a copy of Chinese president Xi Jinping's book, "The
Governance of China," in a pile on Zuckerberg's desk, Zuckerberg
reportedly told him: "I also bought this book for my coworkers; I
wanted them to learn about socialism with Chinese characteristics."
Lu was also pictured meeting with Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook and
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on his trip.
China remains one of the last great obstacles to Zuckerberg's
longstanding vision of connecting the world's entire population, and
he has made no secret of his desire to enter a market with more than
600 million Internet users.
Lu, a former Beijing propaganda chief who took up his current
central government role in 2013, has repeatedly defended China's
Internet censorship as critical to preserving domestic stability.
"China has always been very hospitable, but we can choose who enters
our house," he told reporters in October. "We could not allow any
companies to enter China and make money while hurting the country.”
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He added: "I didn't say Facebook could not enter China, but nor did
I say that it could."
Prone to colorful and sometimes conflicting statements, Lu played
host last month to the World Internet Conference, an event meant to
show off the growing influence of China's tech industry but also lay
out policymakers' vision for Internet governance: open, but on the
government's terms.
Cyberspace should be "free and open, with rules to follow and always
following the rule of law," Lu said during an opening ceremony.
Outside the conference, authorities detained a small group of
students demonstrating to seek access to Facebook, attendees said.
(Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
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