Bad luck Zuck: China says no plans to stop blocking foreign web site
By Steven Jiang and Katie Hunt, CNN
Updated 0840 GMT (1640 HKT) December 9, 2015
Beijing (CNN)Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has been courting China assiduously -- learning Mandarin, welcoming officials to Facebook's offices and asking President Xi Jinping to choose a name for his then unborn child.
But, so far, there's little sign his charm offensive is paying off.
Lu Wei, China's Internet czar, says the country has no plans to stop blocking foreign websites, which includes popular social media sites such Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, as well as some news websites.
"I can't change you, but I have the right to choose my friends," Lu said at a rare news conference Wednesday.
"I indeed have to choose. We don't welcome those who come to China to make money while smearing China."
"It's like a family who doesn't welcome unfriendly people into their house as guests," he continued.
"It's like a family who doesn't welcome unfriendly people into their house as guests," he continued.
Lu denied that the Chinese Internet was becoming a cut-off "Intranet" -- a common charge of critics who say that the country has dramatically ramped up its war on the open web through a vast censorship apparatus known as the "Great Firewall of China."
Activists say, that in the past year, regulators have shut down tools that allow people to access blocked content and threatened their developers, both in and out of the country.
No censorship?
Lu said China didn't censor online content, but like most countries, regulated it.
"If we really censor the Internet, how come our Internet user population and their reliance on the Internet keep growing?
"Let me tell you, China has four million websites, nearly 700 million Internet users, 1.2 billion mobile phone users as well as 600 million WeChat and Weibo users. Every day they post 30 billion messages. It's simply impossible for any country or organization to censor 30 billion messages."
But he added: "Not censoring doesn't mean there is no bottom line: If you touch that line and violate the law, you will be held responsible."
China's homegrown tech industry has thrived -- in part through creating heavily regulated Chinese versions of popular blocked services that many users find are as good if not better than their inspiration.
Instead of Google, Chinese users have Baidu; instead of Twitter, they have Weibo; and instead of Facebook, there's WeChat.
However, Lu, who was among the officials that visited Facebook's campus last year, didn't shut the door completely on Zuckerberg and other blocked tech companies hoping to do more business in China.
"We are open to all Internet companies around the world. As long as you don't harm China's national interests or Chinese consumers' interest, we welcome you and your growth in China."
臉書創辦人馬克祖克伯積極尋求中國市場，他學中文，歡迎政府官員拜訪辦公室還請習近平主席幫他尚未出生的小孩取名字。
只是，目前為止他的魅力還是沒有達到效果。
國家互聯網信息辦公室主任魯煒說明國家不會接受外國網站，包括受歡迎的社群網路臉書，推特和IG，以及其他新聞網站。
「我不能改變你但我可以選擇不要你。」星期三魯煒在新聞發表會上說。「我必須選擇。我們不歡迎來這些來賺中國錢同時還污衊中國的網站。」
「這就好像家庭不會歡迎一個不友善的朋友來家中作客一樣。」魯煒繼續說著。
他反對中國網路是被阻斷的「內聯網」之說，這是一般人用來批評中國用廣大的監控設備（俗稱中國長城防火牆）阻止網路對外開放。
批評者說，過去官方已經關閉所有可以翻牆的工具還警告國內外發展翻牆軟體的人。
沒有審查制度？
魯煒說中國並沒有審查網路上的內容，只是像其他國家一樣，規範網路內容。
「如果我們真的審查下去了，為何使用網路的人口及對網路的信賴程度會持續成長？」
「我告訴你，中國有400萬個網站，近700萬的使用者，12億個手機使用者跟6億個WeChat和微博註冊帳號。每天發文就有300億則，這對每個國家或機構來說要審查這300億則訊息是不可能的事。」
接著他補述：「但不審查不代表沒有底限：如果你觸底觸法，當然要負起責任。」
中國本土科技產業蓬勃發展中，部分企業透過創建中國官方嚴格監控下的防堵服務，很多使用者認為還不錯。
沒有Google，中國用百度。沒有推特，中國用微博。沒有臉書，中國用WeChat。
然而魯煒在去年相偕其他官員一起參訪臉書園區時，對馬克祖克伯及其他被擋在外頭的科技公司想在中國取得市場的期望並未完全拒絕。
「我們對全世界的網路科技公司是開放的，只要你不傷害中國本身的利益或中國消費者的利益，我們當然歡迎你，歡迎你在中國蓬勃發展。」
court (v.) 力圖獲得
assiduously (adv.) 刻苦地
czar (n.) 獨裁者
smear (v.) 塗抹
apparatus (n.) 設備
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