The players behind ping-pong diplomacy

[Randy W]

from China Daily

The players behind ping-pong diplomacy of '70s

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On April 7, 1971, the last day of competition at the 31st World Table Tennis Championships in Nagoya, Japan, Connie Sweeris, the reigning US champion, was called to a team meeting. "We were told that we had been invited to visit China," she said. "But no American had been allowed to go into China for 22 years."

 

Three days later, Sweeris was looking out the window of a train at an extended patchwork of rice paddies, dotted by men carrying buckets of water with poles across their shoulders.

 

The train was taking Sweeris and her teammates — 15 of them, including seven players — from Hong Kong to Guangzhou, where they would embark on a weeklong tour around China.

 

What the young woman wasn't fully aware of at the time was that history was unfolding, and she was part of it. US president Richard Nixon would visit China in February the next year, followed two months later by a Chinese table tennis team's reciprocal tour of the US in April 1972.

 

. . .

 

"First, we had to get permission from the US government. Our passports, which had the phrase, 'You cannot enter Communist mainland China" written on it, were taken to the US embassy to have it struck out with a black permanent marker,"

 

 

 

Edited April 11, 2021 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

from the Sixth Tone on Facebook 
https://www.facebook.com/1570821646570023/posts/2921868804798627/

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This year marks the 50th anniversary of "Ping-Pong Diplomacy." On April 10, 1971, the US table tennis team visited China on the country's invitation, becoming the first US delegation to visit the Chinese mainland since 1949.

[Randy W]

from China Pictorial on Facebook 
https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=3686807774777918&id=553929144732479

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A special event was in Shanghai on Saturday to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Ping-Pong Diplomacy between China and the United States.
At the conclusion of the 31st World Championships in Nagoya, Japan, at the invitation of the Chinese table tennis team, the U.S. table tennis team arrived on April 10, 1971, to commence their visit to China, becoming the first U.S. group to visit since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949.
The Chinese team paid a return visit the following year. The mutual visits broke the ice in two decades of estranged Sino-U.S. relations and eventually led to the normalization of bilateral ties.
The commemorative activity was staged in the International Table Tennis Federation Museum in Shanghai.
"The Ping-Pong Diplomacy of 50 years ago is of special significance in the history of China-US relations," Chinese Ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai addressed a video speech.
Sheri Cioroslan, former president of USA Table Tennis, shared her story via video of learning about the "Ping-Pong Diplomacy" at a young age and her efforts in carrying on the legacy of the "Ping-Pong Diplomacy" during her stint.
"There are so many memories to cherish and so many more to make," she noted.
#China #US #PingpongDiplomacy

Edited April 12, 2021 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

How Ping-Pong Turned the Tables of the Cold War
A fateful encounter at a table tennis contest in 1971 helped end the United States’ trade embargo on China and pave the way for President Nixon’s historic visit.

An American tennis table player (right) trains with a Chinese player, in Beijing, April 1971. AFP/People Visual

from the Sixth Tone Jun 10, 2021

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Fifty years ago today, the U.S. lifted its 21-year trade embargo on China.

 . . .

But for many, the moment that set the ball rolling toward a rapprochement had actually occurred two months earlier in an unlikely setting: a table tennis tournament in Japan. Or more specifically, on the Chinese team’s bus.

It was here that a fateful encounter occurred between two young ping-pong players — the American Glenn Cowan and the Chinese team captain, Zhuang Zedong — that helped break the ice between the two Cold War powers.

Cowan, who had wandered on to the wrong bus, ended up chatting with Zhuang during the short ride to the competition venue. When the pair got off the shuttle together a few minutes later, they caused a media sensation.

“It really was just a matter of chance,” Xu Yinsheng, who coached the Chinese team at the tournament, told Sixth Tone at a press event in April. “Zhuang Zedong did the right thing in the right place, and at the right moment.”

 . . .

China was four years into the Cultural Revolution, an anarchic decade of internal strife during which those deemed enemies of communism — including colluders with foreign powers like the U.S. — were brutally persecuted by their fellow citizens. The upheaval was even felt inside the nation’s sports teams, with many formerly idolized athletes suddenly reviled and persecuted as “revisionists.”

Xu, the coach, recalled Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai asking the Chinese ping-pong team to discuss among themselves whether to attend the World Table Tennis Championships in 1967. Xu was in favor, but a radical faction was fiercely opposed.

“They said the championship’s seven trophies were donated by the capitalist class, so if we participated, it would amount to pandering to them,” said Xu. “After an intense discussion, the premier assessed the situation … and finally decided that we wouldn’t take part.”

China also missed the 1969 championships for similar reasons.

But ahead of the 31st edition of the competition in March 1971, the Japan Table Tennis Association president, Goto Koji, was keen to have the Chinese team join. He sent an envoy to China to smooth the process, agreeing to a wide range of demands — including the exclusion of the Taiwan-based Republic of China from the championships.

The event drew the attention of Chairman Mao Zedong, who felt it could be politically useful, said Xu. After another team discussion initiated by Zhou, the Chinese leadership decided the Chinese players should attend.

“The team should go,” ordered Mao on March 15, “and should fear neither hardship nor death.”

 

American table tennis player Glenn Cowan (right) shakes hands with China’s Zhuang Zedong after getting off the Chinese team’s bus, during the 31st World Table Tennis Championships in Nagoya, Aichi, Japan, April 4, 1971. The Asahi Shimbun via Getty Images

"When they arrived at the venue, the waiting journalists were surprised to see a Chinese and American athlete hop off the bus together. A photo of the pair shaking hands made the front page of newspapers all over Japan the next day. Before long, it had spread to media the world over."

Edited June 11, 2021 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

Nixon in China: How a US presidential trip made history 50 years ago

Edit 2/21/2022 - Apparently replaced with this video

from the SCMP

Edited February 21, 2022 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

A 50th Anniversary celebrated by CGTN

Nixon's 1972 visit to China: What happened 50 years ago and why it matters today

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On the first day of Nixon's trip, or rather, just hours after his arrival in the Chinese capital, Chairman Mao Zedong met with him at Zhongnanhai, the leadership compound in downtown Beijing. They talked for more than an hour, and had a "serious and frank" exchange of views on China-U.S. relations and world affairs.

The face-to-face meeting between the two leaders came after years of testing and contact between the Chinese and the American sides.

In the late 1960s, when great changes took place in the world situation, both governments readjusted their diplomatic policies. In 1970, China and the United States resumed talks on the ambassador level.

Since his first days in office, Nixon had repeatedly signaled his desire to secure a U.S.-China rapprochement. To that end, he took the initiative through Pakistan and Romania to pass on messages to China.

When China marked its 21st National Day on October 1, 1970, Mao invited American writer Edgar Snow to join the celebration on Tian'anmen Rostrum, sending a signal to the U.S. that China was willing to improve relations with it. Then on December 18, he asked Snow to pass the message to Washington that Nixon would be welcome to Beijing for talks.

 

 

[Randy W]

This anniversary is still in the news on CGTN

'Cornerstone': The historic Sino-U.S. Joint Communiqué laid the cornerstone for China-U.S. relations

Fifty years ago, an American president made a journey hailed as "ice-breaking." It culminated in the release of the Sino-U.S. Joint Communiqué, and eventually led to the establishment of diplomatic relations. It also laid the cornerstone for building exchange and cooperation between the two countries. Through eye-witness accounts and expert analysis, "Cornerstone" examines the historic events of 50 years ago when China and the U.S. broke the ice in their relationship, and assesses the global impact of the Communiqué and the relevance of the key principles it enshrines to bilateral relations today.

from CGTN on Facebook 
https://www.facebook.com/ChinaGlobalTVNetwork/videos/5042588215798657/