“Ｐｉｎｇ－Ｐｏｎｇ Ｄｉｐｌｏｍａｃｙ”

Ｂｙ　ＳＨＵＡＮＧ　ＳＨＵＡＮＧ

The scene was the 31st World Table Tennis Championships held in Nagoya, Japan from March 28 to April 7, 1971. On the afternoon following the launch of the competition, American player Glenn Cowan missed his teams bus after practice, and stood at a loss in the training area. At that moment the Chinese team offered him a lift to the competition venue.During this shuttle bus run, Chinese player Zhuang Zedong greeted him, presenting him with a small gift. This friendly gesture won the attention of the international media.

During the competition, the American Table Tennis Delegation expressed their interest in paying a visit to China after the championships. On April 6 that year, with the approval of Chairman Mao Zedong,the Chinese Table Tennis Team sentthe U.S. team an official invitation.

From April 10 to 17, the American Table Tennis Delegation and a small group of American journalists paid their famous visit as the firstgroup of Americans formally welcomed since the establishment of the Peoples Republic of China in 1949. When the U.S. team had an audience with Zhou Enlai on April 14 in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, the Premier remarked,“You have openeda new chapter in the relations of the American and Chinese people. I am confident that this new beginning of friendship will certainly meet the majority support of our two peoples.”Several hours later, American President Richard Nixon announced plans to remove a 20-year embargo on trade with China.

This visit of the American team to China was a significant breakthrough in Sino-American relations. Hailed as the “small ball impelling the big,” the event went down in history as “ping-pong diplomacy.”

Soon after, in July of that year, U.S. National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger undertook a secret mission to China, paving the way for the historic February 1972 visit of US President Richard Nixon at the invitation of Premier Zhou Enlai. On February 28, a Joint Communiqué of the United States of America and the Peoples Republic of China was published by both countries in Shanghai, constituting formal recognition of each other and marking the start of normalization of their relations.

On December 16, 1978, the two countries published the Joint Communiqué on the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations Between the United States of America and the Peoples Republic of China, scheduling the official start of diplomatic relations on January 1, 1979.