Yao Ming's Facebook page has 620,000 fans
U.S. President Barack Obama's praise of NBA basketball player Yao Ming was noticed by the Chinese superstar after he posted a link to an article mentioning him on his Facebook page.
Obama, speaking to a delegation of Chinese government officials on Monday, said “I have learned from the words of Yao Ming. No matter whether you are a new or an old team member, you need time to adjust to one another,” Obama quoted Yao Ming as saying. “Through the constructive meetings that we have already had, and through this dialog, I am confident that we will meet Yao’s standard,” Obama said.
On Tuesday, Yao Ming posted a link to an article from the Christian Science Monitor mentioning the president's statement. The basketball star's Facebook page is visible to Facebook members who are fans of Mr. Yao. By Tuesday morning, over 1,000 of his fans had marked the link as "I Like It."
Ironically, Facebook continues to be blocked throughout Mainland China. The Chinese government began blocking access to a number of social networking sites earlier this month after riots broke out in Xinjiang Province. Some residents in China have found ways to access the blocked pages via proxy servers.
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