The 2021 World Table Tennis Championships kicked off in the American city of Houston, Texas on November 23. Four Chinese and American paddlers teamed up into two pairs, each with a player from both countries, to compete in the mixed doubles competition and mark the 50th anniversary of ping-pong diplomacy. They claimed straight victories on the first day of the championships.

Chinese player Lin Gaoyuan partnered with U.S. player Lily Zhang, while Chinese player Wang Manyu paired up with U.S. player Kanak Jha.

“I hope both Chinese and American fans will cheer us on,” Lin, a 26-year-old Chinese player who ranks fifth in the Table Tennis World Rankings for men’s singles, said before the event. “It’s not only the first cooperation between players from China and the U.S., but also demonstrates a new way to push forward the friendship between both sides.”

“It’s a historic moment,” said Zhang, a 25-year-old American ranking 35th in the Table Tennis World Rankings for women’s singles. “I’m so glad both countries can unite through table tennis.”

How it all began

Back in 1971, the U.S. table tennis team was invited by its Chinese counterpart to visit China after meeting during the 31st World Championships in Nagoya, Japan.

The invitation followed the chance encounter between two players. After finishing his training session during the competition, American paddler Glenn Cowan found himself on the bus carrying Chinese players to the venue. Former world champion Zhuang Zedong reached out to Cowan, making small talk and gifting him with satin brocade afterward.

Once they got off the bus, the two shook hands and this remarkable, historic moment was captured on camera, soon making headlines across newspapers. “Zhuang did a meaningful thing in the right way at the right time,” then Honorary President of the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) and Chinese coach Xu Yinsheng commented.

Later, at the invitation of the Chinese delegation, a plane with the U.S. table tennis team on board landed at an airport in Beijing on April 10, 1971. They were the first American delegation to enter China at the invitation of the government since the founding of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 1949. The Chinese team paid a return visit the following year. The mutual exchanges broke the ice built up over two decades of estranged China-U.S. relations.

In 1972, then U.S. President Richard Nixon paid a historic visit to China, making him the first American president to travel to the PRC since 1949. At the conclusion of the presidential trip, the two sides issued a joint communiqué in Shanghai, marking the beginning of the normalization of bilateral relations. In 1979, the two countries established diplomatic ties.

“We have been thinking of how to enhance the friendship between China and the U.S. through table tennis once again, based on the solid friendship established by our predecessors, to commemorate the start of ping-pong diplomacy 50 years ago,” said Liu Guoliang, President of the Chinese Table Tennis Association (CTTA). He has recently been elected executive vice president of the ITTF.

Liu also expressed his hopes for the players to make their own contributions to the promotion and development of table tennis worldwide.

“It’s really an incredible feeling to be a part of this huge moment in history,” said five-time U.S. national champion Zhang, adding that table tennis has helped her learn more about her own Chinese heritage.

“I love the sport. It can transcend all boundaries,” she added.

Judy Hoarfrost, who was on the U.S. team that visited China in 1971, told Xinhua News Agency that moves such as joint training and pairing are a wonderful gesture to demonstrate just how much the table tennis community cares about bringing people together through sports.

It is important to realize “what our sport was able to do through ping-pong diplomacy in 1971,” as to “pass that legacy on to our current and future players,” she concluded.

Linked for life

“If the ping-pong diplomacy five decades ago was unintentional, then its 2.0 version today is meaningful,” said Sun Xingjie, deputy head of the Institute of International Studies at Jilin University. The new move shows to the world that cooperation between China and the U.S. supersedes all competition.

The 2021 World Table Tennis Championships, the 56th in history and the first in the U.S., took place in Houston from November 23 to 29.

For the newly formed pairs, each round was an opportunity to gain a deeper mutual understanding and create better teamwork, said Lin, adding that “we will work hard, game by game.” Lin said he often discussed tactics with Zhang during training sessions to better cooperate in the future.

“I think Wang has a very strong forehand and backhand flick, and I’m more consistent. So I hope together, we can bring out each other’s strengths,” Jha added.

The pairing was made possible through efforts on both sides. The CTTA and the U.S. Table Tennis Association together submitted their request for China-U.S. pairs to compete under the ITTF framework.

“On this basis, the CTTA alongside USA Table Tennis proposed to the ITTF to have Chinese and American players paired up for the mixed doubles, so that these athletes, who are friends, can work together in the competition; and fans from both countries can cheer them on, opening a new chapter of ping-pong diplomacy in this new era,” said Liu.

“What a wonderful gesture to have U.S. and Chinese players competing together in the mixed doubles of the World Table Tennis Championships,” said Connie Sweeris, one of the members on the U.S. team that made the ice-breaking trip to China back in 1971. “This gesture will produce further cooperation and strengthen the ties between the two countries.”

The renewal of China-U.S. ping-pong diplomacy comes much to the delight of table tennis fans, the sports community at large, and people supporting China-U.S. friendship on both sides, Zhao Lijian, spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, told a regular briefing in Beijing on November 23.

Zhao continued that the two countries should not let a Cold War mentality dominate bilateral ties, nor let the old trick of drawing ideological lines or dividing the world with rivalry. The U.S. should take concrete actions to implement its statement that it does not want “a new cold war.”

“Through talking, through interacting, we’ve found a way to overcome differences,” he said, referring to relations between the U.S. and China. “Even if we aren’t able to bridge all of our differences, at least what we are able to do, is to understand where we have honest disagreements, put those aside and focus on the areas where we strike common ground,” Christopher Nixon Cox, President Nixon’s grandson, told China Media Group on the eve of the 2021 World Table Tennis Championships.