Zuckerberg Under Fire in China After Report of Quest Sale Talks

Bloomberg News, Bloomberg News

An attendee wears a Meta Platforms Inc. Oculus Quest 2 virtual reality (VR) headset on day two of the Mobile World Congress at the Fira de Barcelona venue in Barcelona, Spain, on Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2023. The annual flagship mobile industry and technology event runs from Feb. 27 to March 2. , Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- Mark Zuckerberg is in hot water in China — again.

An influential social media account affiliated with the official Beijing Daily on Wednesday raked the Meta Platforms Inc. founder over the coals for his previous criticisms of Chinese censorship and alleged intellectual property theft. The lengthy editorial emerged after the Wall Street Journal reported Meta was in talks with Tencent Holdings Ltd. about helping sell the Quest VR headset in China, despite a block on its mainstay social media services from Facebook to Instagram.

Zuckerberg “dropped a rock on his own foot,” the Beijing Daily said in a WeChat post that garnered more than 100,000 views. “You smashed the wok, and now you want to enjoy a Chinese meal?”

Zuckerberg’s relationship with China has run hot and cold. The Meta CEO was famously pictured jogging through a smog-filled Beijing and greeting then internet-czar Lu Wei at the height of a campaign to court officials in the world’s largest internet arena.

That courtship soured after Lu was jailed for alleged corruption, and a backlash emerged in the US against internet firms’ endeavors to gain access to China. The entrepreneur has since slammed ByteDance Ltd.’s TikTok — now a fierce rival — for privacy violations and the alleged scrubbing of content. Zuckerberg has also accused China publicly of technology theft. US officials are currently reviewing TikTok and could potentially ban the short video app on national security grounds.

Representatives for Meta and Tencent didn’t respond to requests for comment. The South China Morning Post first reported on the editorial.

“Zuckerberg is now searching for a better solution to his China problem,” the editorial ran. “But the biggest hurdle to that may be himself.”

--With assistance from Sing Yee Ong and Zheping Huang.