Facebook gets license for office in China after being locked out of the country for years

Facebook has obtained a license to set up an office in China — a first for the social media giant, which has been shut out of China's lucrative market for years despite many attempts to break in. The $30-million subsidiary, which will open in the southern city of Hangzhou, would be set up as a start-up incubator, making minor investments and advising small businesses, according to a person familiar with the company's thinking and a Chinese business filing.

Facebook is currently blocked in China. Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg has made personal appeals to the Chinese Communist Party's top brass, including learning Mandarin and taking a notorious "smog jog" through Tiananmen Square, braving toxic air pollution for a photo op in 2016.