New | Like: Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg marks 'personal milestone' after minute-long chat in Mandarin with Xi Jinping
The social network founder’s gushing post about his encounter with Xi is not the first time he has shown his admiration for the Chinese president
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has gushed about his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, calling it a “personal milestone”, after he spoke in Mandarin to Xi at an event on Wednesday.
A picture accompanying the post showed Zuckerberg greeting the president. He was in a suit and tie – a rare practice for the internet billionaire. Lu Wei – China’s internet tsar, who controls the country’s great firewall that blocks Facebook among other foreign websites – stood by the two, wearing a broad smile.
“It was an honour to meet President Xi and other leaders,” Zuckerberg’s post read, adding that internet users could follow updates of the president’s first state visit to the United States on the Facebook page “Xi’s US Visit”.
Zuckerberg met Xi when the president visited Microsoft’s main campus in Redmond, near Seattle, on Wednesday. A Microsoft spokeswoman said that during Xi’s meeting there with internet CEOs, the president spoke for only about six minutes and that none of the American business leaders responded.
Zuckerberg’s post about his brief chat with Xi sparked debate among internet users over China’s censorship.