Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has made a deal to launch a new, government-approved arm of his social networking empire in China, Sohu.com has reported. Rumor has it, Facebook will team up with Baidu Inc., a Chinese web services company, to make the new site happen.

Mark Zuckerberg (Creative Commons)

China’s internet policy is to block all sites hosting pornography, gambling, anti-government rhetoric and all sites that refuse to adhere to national self-censorship standards. This has prevented sites such as Google and Facebook from permanently setting up shop there. Zuckerberg met with Baidu in December to try to work out an agreement.

Zuckerberg may face some competition in the Chinese market though, since the country has already seen the rise of a multitude of Facebook copycats.

But will the deal get a “like” from U.S. politicians? Forbes writer Gady Epstein says this will raise eyebrows in Washington:

In the U.S. ... there will be questions for Zuckerberg, from some members of Congress and the Obama administration, about all the concessions he would have to make to a country that is in the midst of blackening its already lamentable record on human rights. The recent detention of artist-dissident Ai Weiwei on suspicion of “economic crimes” has intensified scrutiny of China, at least for the moment.

Ultimately, though, I still believe Facebook China will happen because Zuckerberg wants it that badly.

The Chinese government will also likely have something to say on the matter, given the amount of credit Facebook has been given for the “jasmine revolutions” in the Middle East.

Also at Forbes, analyst Eric Jackson suggests that Facebook could be just the first to lead the charge to scale the “Great Firewall.” He also throws in a few jabs at Groupon CEO Andrew Mason, whose reputation for business savvy has taken a hit as of late because of an ill-conceived Super Bowl ad and a less-than-inspiring appearance on Charlie Rose. Ultimately, though, the company may have a shot at the Chinese market, despite difficulties:

Mason and Groupon aren’t dead in China yet. They have a great partner in Tencent which can clean up a lot of messes. However, they are in a brutally competitive space that every major Chinese portal is getting into, and dozens of Chinese home-grown companies already are established in. Over there, no one’s ever heard much about Groupon. In fact, the URL www.groupon.cn is owned by a completely different coupon company who reserved it before Groupon ever thought about it.

Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t want to be the next Conan O’Brien. He just wants to build a great company and will do what he needs to to accomplish that.

Reach Ryan Faughnder here.