Shao Weiming Receives Australian Guests

Apr 21, 2025

On the afternoon of April 10, ShaoWeiming, Executive Vice President of JAFIE, warmly received Grant Harrison,President of the Knox Raiders Club from Melbourne, Australia, and hisdelegation.

ShaoWeiming gave the visiting guests a brief introduction to JAFIE, highlightingits background and longstanding friendly interactions with former AustralianPrime Minister Bob Hawke and former Speaker of the Victorian Parliament, KenSmith. He specifically noted that 46 years ago, Jiangsu Province and the Stateof Victoria formally established a sister-state relationship. This deep-rootedfriendship has laid a solid foundation for today’s exchanges and cooperation.Shao emphasized the strong complementarity between China and Australia in somefields such as sports. He recognized the Knox Raiders Club’s rich experience inyouth basketball training and event organization, and expressed hope that bothsides would take this opportunity to explore cooperation in areas such astalent development, mutual visits for competitions, and cultural exchange. Suchcollaboration, he said, could further deepen and solidify people-to-people tiesand friendly exchanges between China and Australia.

GrantHarrison shared the development journey and current scale of the Knox RaidersClub. He noted that basketball enjoys a strong following in Australia and thatthe club places great emphasis on discovering and nurturing young basketballtalent. Harrison expressed a desire to establish a long-term partnership withJiangsu. He mentioned that a framework memorandum of cooperation had recentlybeen signed between the Jiangsu Basketball Association and the Knox RaidersClub. Through initiatives such as basketball exchanges and the creation of aprovincial-state youth friendship tournament, he hopes to enhance mutualunderstanding and friendship between young people of the two countries, whilealso promoting the development of basketball in both China and Australia.

ShaoWeiming presented gifts to Mr. and Mrs. Grant Harrison as a gesture of sincerewelcome and best wishes to the friends who had traveled from afar.

ShaoWeiming presented the Letter of Appointment to Yang Hairong, President of theAustralian Shanghai Chamber of Commerce and Overseas Member of JAFIE.

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This article is published by Jiangsu Friendship Exchange Promotion Association (http://en.jafie.org), if you need to reproduce it, please indicate the source. Jiangsu Friendship Association, Jiangsu Friendship Exchange Promotion Association, Friendship Association, Jiangsu Friendship Association Official Website, Yangtze River Think Tank, Yangtze River Forum, September 2013, approved by the Organization Department and Jiangsu Provincial Committee, Jiangsu Friendship Association for Friendship Exchange Promotion (JFAFP) was established in Nanjing. The Jiangsu Friendship Association is a province-wide social organization established by the Standing Committee of the Jiangsu Provincial People's Congress (Jiangsu People's Congress).