No individual in China is allowed to have a Facebook, Google and Twitter account, but that has not stopped top executives from all three Silicon Valley firms from visiting Beijing in late 2015, hoping to get that country to reverse its . Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg gave a 22-minute speech at China’s Tsinghua University, while senior executives from Google and Twitter attended a technology conference in Beijing hosted by San Francisco-based TechCrunch. Due to censorship in China, Google searches are not allowed there, but Google did just partner with Chinese hardware maker Huawei on a new phone. As a goodwill gesture, Zuckerberg is personally learning and practicing Mandarin, the language most spoken on China’s mainland. China’s communist government, however, desires to promote Chinese businesses globally, so some firms in China have been granted permission to have official accounts on Facebook, Google, and Twitter. Over the last twelve months, USA technology companies have watched Apple post an 84 percent increase in Greater China sales (which includes Taiwan and Hong Kong), generating $23 billion in operating income from that region. Comparatively, Twitter is not growing and is in fact laying off up to 10 percent of its work force; analysts say this is because China is off limits for Twitter doing business.

Based on: http://www.latimes.com/world/asia/la-fg-china-google-twitter-20151102-story.html