How To Get Facebook Unblocked?

Will COO Sheryl Sandberg be able to get Facebook unblocked in China following her visit in September 2013?

• http://www.businessinsider.com/facebooks-sandberg-goes-to-china-praises-china-doesnt-mention-that-china-censors-facebook-2013-9

• Answer:

  Sheryl Sandberg is not the first senior Facebook staffer to visit China. Mark Zuckerberg has visited the country many times in the last few years (, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/20/facebook-china-mark-zuckerberg-2011_n_864613.html, http://thenextweb.com/facebook/2012/03/27/first-tim-cook-now-mark-zuckerberg-is-spotted-visiting-china/) and even http://news.yahoo.com/mark-zuckerberg-makes-surprise-cameo-chinese-tv-191107978--finance.html. He was know to have had meetings with several large Chinese Internet firms including Baidu and Sina. Facebook could get unblocked in China if it really wanted to. The question is whither Facebook is willing to do what is required for this to happen. The obvious conditions would be that Facebook would have to set up a Chinese operation. Either as a wholly owned foreign company or as a joint venture with a Chinese company. They would need to run the Chinese part of the operation within the borders of China and comply with Chinese laws and regulations which of course would include Facebook censoring its Chinese users in accordance with a political advisor that the company would have to hire. Whither Facebook would be willing to do the above is a moral question that only the senior employees at that company can decide and others can merely speculate. However, there is a further complication. China is highly protective of its home grown internet industry. Companies like Biadu, Tencent, and Sina field products that directly compete with big US names like Google, Facebook and Twitter. What does Facebook offer into the Chinese internet community that isn't available from one of these home grown firms? As such, I would expect Facebook to only be allowed into China as a joint venture with an existing Chinese firm. Speculation is that Facebook has already tried to enter into such a joint venture. Mark Zuckerberg is know to have had meetings with several Chinese internet firms. So far no announcements have come out of these. Perhaps there is good reason why not. I use Facebook; but I also use Renren, Sina Weibo and Tencent's Wechat (Weixin). The Chinese sites are every bit as good, and in some ways better, than Facebook. One should ask if there is something that Facebook could learn form these Chinese firms and if China could expand westward and not only ask the one sided question about Facebook going into China.