Rod Beckstrom, ICANN’s CEO and president, recently visited China on 2-3 March for talks with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Industry leaders and CNNIC, the China Internet information Network on his way to the ICANN Nairobi meeting that is currently underway.

The visit was Beckstrom’s first major bilateral visit since he was appointed president and CEO apart from a brief visit to Europe at the end 2009.

In a posting on the ICANN blog, Nick Thorne writes that “during the visit Rod attended a NomComm outreach event designed to encourage greater participation. Organised by the charming and effective Professor Hong Hue, Director of the Institute for Internet policy at Beijing Normal University and in the presence of Madam Qiheng Hu, President of the Internet Society of China. The event was very kindly sponsored by CNNIC, whose Director General, Dr. Wei Mao, also made a very positive contribution to our efforts to encourage greater Chinese participation in our multi-stakeholder model.”