Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies before the U.S. House Financial Services Committee during An Examination of Facebook and Its Impact on the Financial Services and Housing Sectors hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington DC on Oct 23, 2019. Photo: Xinhua

Chinese netizens said they won't ever again believe Mark Zuckerberg after the founder and CEO of Facebook, who once had a huge number of fans in China for his deep attachment to Chinese culture, became an aggressive promoter of TikTok's demise in the US.  

Married to US-born Priscilla Chan, who grew up in a Chinese-Vietnamese family, Zuckerberg is known as the "Chinese people's son-in-law" and was often lauded by the Chinese public for his friendliness toward China. 

When he gave a lecture at Tsinghua University in Beijing in October 2014, he surprised the audience by delivering his speech in Putonghua. On February 7, 2016, Zuckerberg and his wife and daughter wished the Chinese people a Happy Chinese New Year in Putonghua in a video. In March of that year, he was dubbed by Chinese netizens "the most expensive air cleaner" after photos of him going for a run near Tiananmen Square in downtown Beijing spread widely on social media, as he didn't wear a mask despite visible smog.

The attacks against Huawei, TikTok and DJI serve to illustrate widespread concerns of the US elite about the global expansion of Chinese tech companies, but Chinese netizens never thought Zuckerberg would stoop to encouraging the US government to suppress Chinese tech enterprises. 

After wooing China in the hopes of getting Facebook into the Chinese market, Zuckerberg has done a complete about-face. 

Some netizens said Facebook should be called Facelessbook, while others called on others to delete the app from their phones. 

Five years ago, Zuckerberg praised "great Chinese companies" such as Alibaba and Xiaomi, and China's history calling is "a story of innovation." But on Thursday he testified before the US Congress that there is "ample evidence" that shows China stole US technology, a statement the three other CEOs of US internet giants at the hearing didn't confirm. 

Chinese observers said Zuckerberg's willingness to set aside morality for profit shows the true face of US capitalism.

"We had thought there was a good man among the internet giants, but he has shown his true face and his integrity is broken to pieces. It takes many things and a long time to see a person clearly, and it seems that 'the Chinese people's son-in-law' has ended his fate with China," Fang Xingdong, founder of Beijing-based technology think tank ChinaLabs, told the Global Times on Monday.

In October 2019, Facebook was bashed by Chinese analysts for turning a blind eye to the Hong Kong Police Force's requests to remove defamatory posts against them. The social media giant's practice was slammed for showing double standards and bias on Hong Kong-related issues with an aim to meet its own interests and political ends.