The following post by Rongjian2001 (荣剑2001), was deleted from Sina Weibo sometime before 10:50am today, 16 December 2015. The post asks tongue-in-cheek where Facebook is and what kind of book it is — the popular US-based service of course being blocked in China.
The post answers its own question with a reference to the town of Wuzhen in Zhejiang province, currently the site of China’s World Internet Conference. It shares a screenshot of a Weibo post by Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post (SCMP), which reports that guests at WIC can log on to Facebook and Twitter while in Wuzhen if they use special Wi-Fi accounts.
Rongjian2001 notes that China has the stated goal of fashioning itself as a global Internet power, or wangluo qiangguo (网络强国). The implication: Can it accomplish this if its closes itself off from the global Internet?
A translation of the post follows:
I used to have no idea where Facebook is and what kind of book it is. It turns out it’s in Wuzhen, China. China is going to build itself as an Internet superpower.
The original post in Chinese:
以前不知道Facebook在哪里，是一本什么书，原来就在中国的乌镇。中国现在要建网络强国了。
