Special to WorldTribune.com

Facebook has been blocked in China since 2009. And now Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s request for an honorary Chinese name for his unborn daughter has been blocked by China’s president.

At an exclusive White House soiree on Sept. 25, Zuckerberg was shot down when he asked President Xi Jinping to give him guidance on a name.

That does not spell doom for Facebook’s apparently warm and fuzzy feelings for China and its Chinese Communist Party regime.

Zuckerberg reportedly approached Xi and asked the favor in Mandarin. The New York Post’s Page Six reported that Xi declined because it was “too much responsibility.”

Zuckerberg and pregnant ethnic-Chinese wife Priscilla Chan joined other American technology and media bigwigs at the Sept. 25 state dinner that marked Xi’s first official U.S. visit.

The Facebook founder met Xi two days earlier at the U.S.-China Internet Industry Forum.

“On a personal note, this was the first time I’ve ever spoken with a world leader entirely in a foreign language. I consider that a meaningful personal milestone. It was an honor to meet President Xi and other leaders,” Zuckerberg wrote on his Facebook page.

The overtures and platitudes did nothing to change Xi’s stance on Facebook, which was blocked in China in 2009 after allegations that it was used to organize anti-government riots. China has 600 million Internet users.

Xi said during his U.S. visit that any expansion of China’s Internet must occur in line with “national realities.”

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