Ahead of the Spring Festival, Chinese Premier Li Qiang hosted a symposium on the afternoon of February 13^th at the Great Hall of the People for foreign experts who won the 2025 Chinese Government Friendship Award, as well as other foreign experts working in China. Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang attended the event.

Professor Fausto Giunchiglia, a Member of the Academy of Europe and a newly elected Foreign Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Professor Hans Christopher Juhlin, a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and winner of the Chinese Government Friendship Award in 2025 were invited to the symposium.

Li extended best wishes and sincere greetings for the Spring Festival to the foreign experts and thanked them for their long-term concern and support for China’s modernization efforts. He also listened to their opinions and suggestions on China’s development and government work.

Fausto Giunchiglia, an Italian national, is currently a Professor at University of Trento, and a Tang Aoqing Professor and PhD supervisor at Jilin University. He previously served as president of the Board of Trustees of IJCAI. He was elected as a Member of the Academy of Europe in 2012, received the Chinese Government Friendship Award in 2024, and was elected as a Foreign Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2025.

Hans Christopher Juhlin is a geophysics expert and a professor at Uppsala University in Sweden, as wella Distinguished Adjunct Professor at Jilin University. He previously served as President of the Energy, Resources and Environment (ERE) Division of the European Geosciences Union (EGU) and was a member of the Energy Committee of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. He was elected as a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 2014 and received the Chinese Government Friendship Award in 2025.