Though the U.S. and China have a slightly different view on Web censorship, China's top Internet regulator recently toured some of North America's largest tech firms.
Lu Wei, the minister of China's Cyberspace Administration, visited the campuses of Facebook, Apple, and Amazon, according to Reuters, which cited a Chinese government website. That site suggested that Lu and CEO Mark Zuckerberg "greeted each other in Mandarin and with broad smiles," Reuters said.
Among the things they discussed was "The Governance of China," a book written by Lu, who previously served as the country's propaganda chief. Zuckerberg told Lu that he purchased the book for his co-workers because "I wanted them to learn about socialism with Chinese characteristics," according to Reuters.
Facebook has been banned in China since 2009, though restrictions on social networks were lifted last year in a very small free-trade zone in Shanghai.
Back in 2011, Zuckerberg told Charlie Rose that China was not a major focus for Facebook. It's "not the top thing we're thinking about right now," he said at the time. But that was a year before Facebook hit 1 billion users, and it had to start thinking about how it could grow an already massive user base. A good place to start? China and its hundreds of millions of Internet users.
Zuckerberg apparently agrees; he learned Mandarin in the past few years and recently wowed Beijing audiences in October when he spoke the language at the Tsinghua University School of Economics for 30 minutes.
Facebook is not the only tech firm courting China. Lu also met with Apple CEO Tim Cook and Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos on his trip, Reuters said.
Facebook, Apple, and Amazon did not immediately respond to PCMag's request for comment.