March 20, 2016•Update: March 22, 2016
By Mahmut Atanur
BEIJING
Facebook's founder has held a rare meeting with a Senior Communist Party of China official, with responsibilities in Cyberspace on the agenda.
The social media company -- along with other Western social media -- is banned among China's 668 million Internet users, and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has long been trying to gain access to the country.
State news agency Xinhua quoted Party official Liu Yunshan as saying that "Cyberspace is the common space of mankind, and it is the common responsibility for the international community to build a 'community of shared future' in cyberspace."
He added that Facebook could share its experience with Chinese companies to help “internet development better benefit the people of all countries”.
In Dec. 2013, the Communist Party of China issued guidelines to control what is available in media and on the Internet.
"Management of the media should be strengthened and the media should not provide channels for the spread of the wrong points of view," said the guidelines.
They added that to cope with the fast development, "efforts should be made to manifest core socialist values in Internet publicity, culture and service, so as to use a positive voice and advanced culture to capture the online front."
Party authorities also ordered strengthened management of the Internet in accordance with the law and a fight against obscenity, online rumors and criminality to make the "Internet environment clean", according to Xinhua in a 2013 report.
Zuckerberg's trip also saw him meet Saturday with the China-based founder of e-commerce giant Alibaba Jack Ma, to discuss innovation.
Xinhua reported Ma as saying that Zuckerberg respected Chinese culture, adding that oriental culture and western culture should learn from each other and work collaboratively.
Zuckerberg -- in Beijing for an economic forum - has made persistent efforts to woo Chinese leaders who enforce the country's strict online censorship.
On a visit to Facebook’s California headquarters in 2014, he is reported to have told China's top Internet official that he was engrossed in the collected speeches of the China's president, Xi Jinping.
He is also reported to have engaged his audience in Mandarin during a forum at Beijing's prestigious Tsinghua University.
On Friday, he braved Beijing's notorious air pollution with a run through Beijing's Tiananmen Square at a time when the capital was experiencing a yellow-level smog alert -- a level considered “hazardous” by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
"It's great to be back in Beijing!" he wrote on Facebook.
"I kicked off my visit with a run through Tiananmen Square, past the Forbidden City and over to the Temple of Heaven."
Some Facebook users, however, were not impressed.
"I totally understand the efforts you are making to expand Chinese market, but as a Chinese I have to remind you the air pollution index (PM2.5) of the day you ran in Beijing is 384 (poison to human body, normal range <30)," posted a Yu Teng.
