3 preconditions for Facebook to enter China

It's well known that Mark Zuckerberg has a big interest in the Chinese market. Recently, the founder of Facebook visited China to attend a development forum held by the Chinese government. Along with the trip, he also paid a trip to some famous places in Beijing such as The Great Wall. He even did a morning run in front of the Tian'an men Square, the symbol of China.  In past few years, Zuckerberg also learned Chinese and read Chinese books, showed his love to the Chinese culture. Many people think Zuckerberg's behavior reflects his desire for Facebook to enter China.

However, due to some obvious reasons, there are still difficulties for Facebook to overcome before entering China. From the interactions between Zuckerberg and the Chinese officials, there seems some hope now. There are three preconditions Facebook has to accept before it can enter China. They are :

1. User data generated from China need t be kept in China
2. It has to form partnership with Chinese companies to operate
3. Block all URLs and users prohibited by Chinese law

Among these three preconditions, 1 and 2 are not that difficult for Facebook to accept.

For precondition 1. Other governments may not care about where the servers are located, but it's not that case for Chinese government. Chinese government wants to have control over the user data so that they can easily access then when they need to take some surveillance against some suspicious actions or people. Facebook should also be OK to store the data in China as long as their users have no problem to access their data. 

For precondition 2. This is also reasonable as it is a common strategy for foreign companies to operate in China. As long as forming partnership with Chinese companies, the foreign companies can get the necessary approvals or qualifications to do business in China. This is the socialism with Chinese characteristics. This should not be a problem for Facebook as well, from Facebook's perspective, it's also desirable for them to partner with Chinese companies because they know better about Chinese people and they can help Facebook adapts to Chinese market easier and faster.

The biggest challenge is precondition 3 where there is no predefined list of URLs and users which should be blocked. The government can ask Facebook to block some URLs and users without giving any reason at any time. This may not be acceptable for Facebook because it's like a black hole and you don't know what will happen in the future. 

If Facebook and Chinese government finally come out a solution to these concerns, that would be a great news for Chinese people. It will bring a big power change in the SNS market in China.