I would say it's absolutely based on China not being an open market, operating primarily by relationships and permission (which can be revoked at any time for a

I would say it's absolutely based on China not being an open market, operating primarily by relationships and permission (which can be revoked at any time for any reason). If you want to do business in China at scale over multiple decades, you better cultivate extremely deep, enduring relationships with the highest tiers of power in their system. And you better constantly renew those ties as the power structures turn over across time. Being on this board is the global business equivalent of reputation sharing, like giving China valuable IP in exchange for them letting you have market access. That's a list of highly respected global business titans, they're lending China and that University their reputation to warm ties and buy favor - absolutely. Zuckerberg is the only one seriously on the outside in that list. He has seen effectively zero benefit so far to all his efforts on relationship building. Although they'll still take his reputation sharing (credibility enhancing; I know that seems absurd in the West right now, he's regarded as a respectable business titan in China). He has been wishing on a star for years now to get access to China. Amusingly, the Chinese authorities have (for their own purposes) thought better of it and know not to let FB in.