I call BS on this story... I don't buy it at all. And if it is true I would guess that a government fund wants to buy stake in FB only to cash in on an IPO not for any control issues as mentioned in this article.

First of all, China has no need for Facebook. They have their own domestic knock-off called QQ. QQ is as popular as FB is in the rest of the world inside of mainland China, QQ even has its own knock-off versions of farmville which are also hugely popular So why would they even need to open up FB in mainland?

IMHO the number 1 reason why China banned FB, (and threatens to ban google.) is not for control but it is to unfairly promote domestic Chinese products. They apply this same strategy to most other industries, the automotive industry being a good example. China has a 100% importation duty on any car not made 100% in China. To buy a BMW that would cost $50,000 in the rest of the world it will cost over $100,000 in mainland China. The reason... economy, they want to have their own auto industry and all the jobs it supports and the money it brings. But their cars suck (although not as bad as they used to, because of this unfair duty) so the local car companies could not compete with the foregin car companies. Now all that money and jobs that purchasing cars in china (now the largest market I think) would leave the country and go to others. That's what the Chinese government can't stand. Now if an automotive company like GM sets up an assembly plant in Shanghai and sets up a join venture with the government and buys all the parts for their cars in China from domestic suppliers then there is no duty because the money and jobs stay in China. They apply this same double strategy to most industries; they want to import as little as possible while exporting as much as possible. There has been a trade and currency war going between China and the US and EU for over 10 years on this issue and the artificial pegging of the RMB to the dollar. This hardly makes the news because its not very interesting, but that's the truth of the matter. Why make a bunch of Americans rich when you can just block their ip's, let a domestic company knock-off their product and then all the money stays inside China.