Song Tao

Song Tao may refer to:

Song Tao (diplomat)

Song Tao (Chinese: 宋涛; born April 1955) is a Chinese politician and senior diplomat, currently serving as the head of the International Liaison Department of the Communist Party of China. He was previously Chinese ambassador to Guyana, the Philippines, the disciplinary chief of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and executive deputy director of the Foreign Affairs Office.

Biography

Song was born Suqian, Jiangsu province, in April 1955. During the Cultural Revolution, when Song was a teenager, he performed manual labour as a rusticated youth in Sha County, Fujian. He worked in the province for his whole life. He attended Fujian Normal University. Beginning in 1978, he worked at the Fujian Forestry Institute. He was later transferred to the Light Industry Institute of Fujian. He also worked in Luoyuan County, the Light Textiles Industry Company of Fujian, Fujian International Trust Company. From September 1988 to August 1991, he attended Monash University in Australia. In 2001, he was named as an assistant to the Chinese ambassador to India. He then became ambassador to Guyana, a department chief in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the ambassador to the Philippines.

Song Tao (basketball)

Song Tao (Chinese: 宋涛; born November 6, 1965 in Jimo, Shandong) is a retired Chinese basketball player and coach. 6'10" (209 cm) with impressive mobility, he was the first player from Asia drafted by an NBA team when the Atlanta Hawks selected him in the 3rd round of the 1987 NBA draft, although he never went to training camp due to serious knee injuries.

Song competed at 1988 Seoul Olympic Games and was the flag bearer of the Chinese Olympic team. He retired from China men's national basketball team in 1991 and became a player-coach in the Shandong provincial team. In 1993, Song went to study in San Francisco, California and then moved to Taiwan to compete in the professional Chinese Basketball Alliance until he retired there around the turn of the century. He coached the National Chiao Tung University varsity team in the ensuing years.

Song returned to China in 2003, and has since lived in Suzhou, Jiangsu where he became a businessman.

Family

His wife Peng Ping is also a former basketball player. She was a member of the China women's national basketball team that won the 1992 Olympic silver medals in basketball in Barcelona, Spain.