Mark Zuckerberg stuns audience by speaking fluent Mandarin at Beijing event

Fluent: Mark Zuckerberg speaks Mandarin during a dialogue with students of Tsinghua University, China.

China may ban Facebook, but not its co-founder and Mark Zuckerberg said he wants to help the world connect to China. The Facebook CEO spoke in fluent Mandarin during Q&A session yesterday at prestigious Tsinghua University, China.

Zuckerberg, whose company has long sought to enter the Chinese market, highlighted that Facebook already helps some Chinese companies in foreign markets. 

Zuckerberg married Priscilla Chan, and set himself the goal of learning Madarin in 2010.

'Speaking of China, I have a more difficult question for Mark, which I hope will not get me fired. What are Facebook's plans in China?' asked the forum facilitator and Facebook employee Wei Xiaoliang, to laughter and applause from the audience.

'We are already in China,' Zuckerberg said in Chinese, to more laughter. 'We help Chinese companies gain customers abroad.'

'We want to help the rest of the world connect to China.'

Zuckerberg married Chinese-American Priscilla Chan in 2012, and set himself the goal of learning Mandarin in 2010.

He said that he wanted to learn the language partly because his wife's grandmother only speaks Chinese.

'Priscilla and I decided to get married, so I told her grandmother in Chinese, and she was very surprised,' Zuckerberg said.

He said China is a great country and hopes that learning the language will help him learn its culture. 'The Chinese language is difficult, and I speak English, but I like challenges,' Zuckerberg said. 

Applause: The audience cheered when Zuckerberg spoke Mandarin during his 30-minute chat.

Source: The Daily Mail

Photo: Associated Press