BEIJING — China may ban Facebook, but not its co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who delighted an audience of students in Beijing with a 30-minute chat in his recently learned, but far from fluent, Mandarin Chinese.

There was no explicit discussion of China’s ban on the social media site, which has been in place since 2009, though an indirect reference to it drew laughter during the question-and-answer session Wednesday at the prestigious Tsinghua University. Both Zuckerberg and the university posted video clips of the Q&A online.

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Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg chats with students as a newly appointed member to the advisory board for Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management. The Associated Press

Zuckerberg, whose company has long sought to enter the Chinese market, noted that the social media giant already helps some Chinese companies in foreign markets, citing computer maker Lenovo’s ads on Facebook in India.

“Speaking of China, I have a more difficult question for Mark, which I hope will not get me fired. What are Facebook’s plans in China?” asked the forum facilitator and Facebook employee Wei Xiaoliang, to laughter and applause from the audience.

“We are already in China,” Zuckerberg said in Chinese, to more laughter. “We help Chinese companies gain customers abroad. We want to help the rest of the world connect to China.”

Beijing promotes Internet use for business and education but bans material deemed subversive or obscene. It also blocks access to foreign websites run by human rights and Tibet activists, and some overseas news and social media sites.

Zuckerberg visited Beijing this week as a newly appointed member to the advisory board for Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management. He met Tuesday with Tsinghua President Chen Jining to discuss cooperation in education, according to a statement by Tsinghua.

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