On 11^th, April 2018, Christopher Nixon Cox (Nixon Junior), maternal grandson of Richard Nixon, the 37^th President of the United States, and co-founder of a consulting firm, OC Global Partners LLC, visited Sanpower Group with his delegation. The delegates were received by Yue Lei, the Global Executive Vice President of Sanpower Group. The two parties discussed topics around cultural exchange.

Nixon Junior and his delegation visited Sanpower Family, Brookstone concept store, and Ageing Service Command Centre, to get acquainted with the business of Sanpower Group. He was remarkably impressed by the Group, who has acquired Brookstone, a US brand known for innovation, and novelty. Sanpower is also a full intelligent property owner of Provenge, the world’s first and only FDA-approved immunotherapy for the treatment of advanced prostate cancer.  

 

Nixon Junior came to Nanjing on a cultural exchange mission to promote the city as an “Innovative City with Global Influence” and “Asian Sports Center City and World Sports City”. Sanpower’s business operations in the USA, more importantly, the Group’s passion for folk cultural exchange fueled his interest for a second visit to the Group. Nixon Junior called for more Chinese enterprises to take part in Sino-US cultural communication.

Yue Lei receiving a signed basketball from Nixon Junior

Yue Lei noted that Sanpower Group welcomes Nixon Junior’s visit as an envoy of the friendship between China and the United States. Over the years, Sanpower Group has been a strong advocate of cooperative mindset and  globalization via business and cultural exchanges. He further noted that Sanpower identifies with tolerance and inclusiveness.

Nixon Junior was accompanied by Zhang Xiaojing, President of Nanjing Sports Industry Group, and Xia Song, President of Beijing Starway Sports &Culture Development Company Limited. From Sanpower’s side, Hua Guikan, Senior Assistant President, Mark Logan, Assistant President, and Pu Chunhua, CEO of Sanpower Culture & Entertainment Industry Group were present.

What needs to be mentioned is that 47 years ago, the grandfather of Nixon Junior, the then American president, launched a Sino-US ice-breaking journey with a small ball to rotate the globe, which was well-renowned as ping-pong diplomacy. This time, Nixon Junior’s visit to Nanjing also followed the example of his grandfather, by adopting a badminton as a medium to initiate folk sports diplomacy in the identity of both a messenger of cultural exchange between China and the United States and the inheritor of Sino-US sports diplomacy heritage, facilitating the landing of high quality international sports programs in Nanjing.