Mark Zuckerberg wanted Xi Jinping to name his child. How the Chinese leader reacted
Mark Zuckerberg's quest to enter China is highlighted in Sarah Wynn-Williams' new book, where she reveals he asked Xi Jinping to name his unborn child
It is a widely known fact that Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg spent years trying to bring Facebook to China. In his quest to conquer the lucrative Chinese market, the billionaire went so far as to learn Mandarin. The true extent of Zuckerberg’s drive to conquer China can be ascertained from an interesting tidbit revealed in the new book by Facebook whistleblower Sarah Wynn-Williams.
In her book Careless People, Sarah Wynn-Williams revealed that Mark Zuckerberg once asked China’s Xi Jinping to name his unborn child. The Chinese president refused.
Wynn-Williams also revealed shocking details about the seven years she spent at Facebook in her controversial memoir. As director of global public policy at Facebook (before the company rebranded to Meta), Wynn-Williams worked closely with top company executives, including founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Her book presents critical accounts of Meta's internal culture and practices, including allegations of unethical behavior and attempts to enter the Chinese market by compromising user privacy.
(Also read: ‘Come to bed’: Sheryl Sandberg’s alleged inappropriate behaviour at Meta detailed in new exposé)
The quest for China
Wynn-Williams described China as Zuckerberg’s “white whale”.
“It’s the thing that he has always sought to conquer, but has eluded him,” she said, according to a recently-published interview in The Times.
Sarah Wynn-Williams claims that in its attempt to enter the Chinese market, Facebook assured authorities it would support social order and provided Chinese engineers with in-depth details on its facial-recognition technology. She also alleges that the company effectively proposed assisting the Communist Party in censoring viral content by allowing the government to supply a blacklist of prohibited material.
“What was even more concerning was they went ahead and installed those virality counters in Hong Kong and in Taiwan,” she alleges.
The Facebook insider also claimed that in 2015, Mark Zuckerberg asked Xi Jinping if he would “do him the honour of naming his unborn child.” Xi Jinping turned down Zuckerberg’s request.
Zuckerberg is married to Priscilla Chan. Their first daughter was born in December 2015. She was named Maxima.
