Even though his social network remains banned in China, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg met with the the Communist country's Internet regulator last week.

According to USA Today, Lu Wei, the minister of China's Cyberspace Administration, visited Facebook's offices during a recent trip to the United States, photos published in state media revealed. The official apparently also met with Apple CEO Tim Cook, as well as Amazon CEO and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos.

The multibillionaire's social network is unavailable in the People's Republic because the Chinese leadership "fears its utility for spreading dissent and organizing protests," USA Today reports.

At Facebook, Lu received what USA Today deemed a "warm reception" and was seen "sitting at Zuckerberg's desk as (Zuckerberg) stood." One of the photos showed a copy of "The Governance of China," an English-language collection of the speeches of Chinese President Xi Jinping, on Zuckerberg's desk.

"I also bought this book for my colleagues," Zuckerberg told Lu in Chinese, according to state-run media. "I want them to understand socialism with Chinese characteristics."

The Facebook CEO appears to have embarked on more than just a "charm offensive" when it comes to China, Quartz noted. In May, his company opened an office in Beijing, and in October, Zuckerberg surprised students at a Chinese university by conducting a 30-minute speech entirely in Mandarin.

"The reason for Zuckerberg's China focus is simple," Quartz reports. "Getting Facebook back into China, where it has been blocked since 2009, would put the company in front of 640 million Internet users, and potentially provide a rich new stream of advertising, in the form of China app developers."

How Facebook could manage to satisfy Chinese censors and stay true to its mission of "connecting the world," meanwhile, remains a mystery, USA Today said.

Still, Zuckerberg has shown himself quite apt at dealing with the idiosyncrasy of the world's most populous country, Jeremy Goldkorn, the founder of the Beijing-based media research firm Danwei, explained.

"It shows a mastery of the type of sycophancy that can have results in China," he said. "Even if there is no chance in hell of Facebook operating in China in the near future, they have long-term ambitions."