Mark Zuckerberg, chief govt officer of Meta Platforms Inc., left, arrives at federal court docket in San Jose, California, US, on Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2022.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Pictures
A Chinese language state-controlled media outlet printed a harsh critique of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday, accusing the billionaire of basically “taking pictures himself within the foot” when it got here to the Chinese language markets.
The editorial, printed by a WeChat account affiliated with the Beijing Day by day, comes after The Wall Avenue Journal reported that Meta was in continued conversations with Tencent to promote Meta’s line of Quest headsets inside mainland China.
The editorial, translated from Mandarin, says that Zuckerberg’s previous criticisms of Chinese language corporations, together with ByteDance’s TikTok, basically quantity to self-sabotage of his efforts to promote in China. Zuckerberg has been a critic of each particular China-based corporations and widespread Chinese language company espionage.
“I believe it is properly documented that the Chinese language authorities steals know-how from American corporations,” Zuckerberg testified earlier than Congress in 2020.
The editorial highlighted visits from Apple CEO Tim Cook dinner and Tesla CEO Elon Musk as examples of constructive engagement with the Chinese language regime and markets, including that Zuckerberg had by no means been in a position to make inroads in China, in obvious distinction to rival tech corporations. Google pulled out of mainland China in 2013; Microsoft has long-standing operations there however introduced it could sundown its LinkedIn-like app in China by August.
Zuckerberg has described TikTok as a “very efficient competitor” in public, and behind closed doorways, he has reportedly stated that the corporate represents a major risk to American companies. After assembly with Zuckerberg and discussing TikTok, Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., co-wrote a letter to U.S. intelligence officers requesting an inquiry into TikTok, The Wall Avenue Journal reported.
Senior officers on the Division of Justice and the Division of Homeland Safety have warned that Chinese language cyber assaults are vital threats, however U.S. officers’ willingness to overtly identify China as a cyber adversary comes at the same time as tech CEOs appear to shrink back or stroll again open criticism of the regime.
Neither Google CEO Sundar Pichai nor Cook dinner explicitly acknowledged Chinese language industrial espionage in the identical February 2020 testimony, though Pichai acknowledged in a while in his testimony that China compromised Google’s mental property in a 2009 cyberattack.