RM Institute for China Studies -
[Cached Version]
Published on: 7/16/1997
Last Visited: 1/20/2006
"It's the second most popular sport in the world after soccer," said Julian Chang, assistant director for Stanford's Center for East Asian Studies.
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Ping-pong diplomacy was a watershed in Chinese-American relationships the opening that led to high-level negotiations between the Nixon administration and the Chinese government, according to Julian Chang, assistant director of the Stanford Center for East Asian Studies.In the previous few years, China's rivalry with the Soviet Union had escalated to the point of pitched battles on the nations' common borderline, and Chang said officials seized on table tennis as a way to reach out to the West.
In April 1971, when U.S. table tennis players joined an international tournament in Nagoya, Japan, they were invited to continue on to China.Chang said that the invitation almost certainly came on orders from Chairman Mao Tse-tung himself.
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Chang said that lately, U.S.-Chinese relations have been strained by disputes about China's trade surplus with the United States, China's human rights record and weapons sales, and by allegations of attempts to use campaign financing to interfere with the American political process."This is an opportunity to re-visit the relationship between the two nations and to remember the goodwill of ping-pong diplomacy," he said.
The Chinese delegation will be led by Zhang Xielin, vice president of the Chinese Table Tennis Association and an original 1972 tour member.