WUZHEN: Top executives at Apple Inc and Facebook Inc managed to find something to praise Beijing for at an internet conference in China this week, even as its Communist Party rulers ban Western social media and stamp on online dissent. China's World Internet Conference attracted the heads of Google and Apple for the first time to hear China vow to open up its Internet – just as long as it can guard cyberspace in the same way it guards its borders. Some embassies, business groups and foreign firms steer clear of the highly choreographed Internet event, analysts say, because of the perceived propaganda. "More people come to Facebook than are in China," said Facebook's Smith at a talk on digital economy on Tuesday. Jack Ma, chairman of China's Alibaba Group Holding Ltd which owns Hong Kong's South China Morning Post, said that foreign tech firms wishing to enter the China market should abide by its laws.

Source: The Star December 05, 2017 09:45 UTC