From left: China’s Lin Gaoyuan and the United States’ Lily Zhang practice against Wang Manyu from China and Kanak Jha from the US at a training session in Houston, Texas, on Nov 22. American and Chinese players are competing in mixed teams at the 2021 World Table Tennis Championships in Houston, which began on Nov 23 and runs through Nov 29. (WU XIAOLING / XINHUA)

Marking the 50th anniversary of Ping-Pong Diplomacy, top paddlers from China and the United States paired up on two teams to compete at the mixed doubles competition at the 2021 World Table Tennis Championships Finals that got underway on Nov 23 in Houston, Texas.

Chinese star Lin Gaoyuan paired with Lily Zhang from the US, while American Kanak Jha is playing with Wang Manyu, who won a team gold for China at the Tokyo Summer Olympics this year.

Liu Guoliang, World Table Tennis Council chair and president of the Chinese Table Tennis Association, believes the China-US pairs at the World Table Tennis Championships, which will run through Nov 29, will usher in a new chapter of Ping-Pong Diplomacy between the two nations.

“We have been thinking about how we can build on the China-US friendship started by our predecessors 50 years ago, and further enhance this relationship through sports events, sports activities and community events,” said Liu.

“On this basis, the CTTA, alongside USA Table Tennis, proposed to the International Table Tennis Federation to have Chinese and American players paired up for the mixed doubles, so that these athletes can work together in the competition, and so that fans from both countries can cheer them on, opening a new chapter of Ping-Pong Diplomacy in this new era.”

In April 1971, members of a US table tennis delegation visited China and played friendly matches. The trip paved the way for the re-establishment of Sino-US relations, which had been suspended for 22 years. Touted as one of the greatest diplomatic breakthroughs of that era, the event became known as Ping-Pong Diplomacy.

“Fifty years ago, a small exchange between players from the Chinese Table Tennis Association and USA Table Tennis has proved to be a moment of lasting significance,” said Virginia Sung, chief executive officer of USA Table Tennis.

“As it did so many years ago, sports are once again showing us the power of unity, and ping-pong is once again changing the course of history.”

The pairing-up announcement, which came on Nov 22, instantly became a trending topic on Chinese social media, while the hashtag “Chinese and American players form pairs at World Table Tennis Championships” had been viewed over 60 million times on Weibo by the afternoon that day.

Expectations are high for the two China-US pairs at the World Table Tennis Championships Finals.

“I’m really happy to be partnering with Lily Zhang for the mixed doubles event. She’s the top table tennis player in the US. I’m not China’s top player yet, but our goal is to come out on top for this event,” said Lin, who currently ranks as the world’s No 7 table tennis player.

“The biggest advantage about pairing with her is that she speaks Mandarin. I hope we can get into the groove soon, develop good chemistry and work hard toward a great performance. And I hope fans from both China and the US will cheer on the China-US mixed doubles pairs.”

Connie Sweeris, a “ping-pong diplomat” from the US who has personally witnessed the power of sports, said she is hopeful about the upcoming Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.

“It’s just a great opportunity to gather the world together. We do want to get together and compete again,” Sweeris said.

From left: Kanak Jha, Lin Gaoyuan, Wang Manyu, Lily Zhang. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

The USA Table Tennis Hall of Famer was a member of the pioneering team from the US that made the historic trip to China in 1971, which launched Ping-Pong Diplomacy between the two nations.

“When it’s only every four years, for some of the athletes that are getting toward the end of their career and wanted to make the Olympics, they maybe cannot have another chance to make an Olympic team or make the Olympics,” said Dell Sweeris, Connie’s husband, doubles partner and also a Hall of Famer.

Five decades since the birth of Ping-Pong Diplomacy between the US and China, the couple firmly believe that sports can foster friendship between nations and peoples.

“When you compete against each other from countries all over the world, you begin to break barriers down, and you begin to understand their culture, and you have exchanges with them,” Connie Sweeris said.

“And it just brings about understanding between individuals, which then can seep into the rest of the culture. Especially for me, that became true in 1971, when I was on the US team in Nagoya, Japan, representing the US at the World Table Tennis Championships. On the last day of that competition, China had extended an invitation to our US team to come and play friendship matches,” she said.

“And as we did that, we realized that we were the first Americans that were going to be let into China since 1949. And when we got into China, the slogan when we played our matches was ‘friendship first, competition second’, and it broke open a door between our two countries to establish a relationship or diplomatic ties, and to begin talks with each other,” Connie Sweeris said.

“So to me, these exchanges can bring about the release of political tensions between countries.”

The resumption and development of China-US ties over the past five decades has become an important event in international relations, benefiting the peoples of the two countries as well as those in other parts of the world, Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said on Nov 23.

Athletes from China and the US who took part in Ping-Pong Diplomacy in 1971 did not show estrangement or hostility because of the great differences between the political systems, histories and cultures of their countries.

Instead, they showed “sincerity and friendliness from their hearts “and they exchanged gifts and hugged each other, Zhao said.

Mentioning that Chinese and US athletes are teaming up in the 2021 World Table Tennis Championships, Zhao said the two countries should not let a Cold War mentality dominate bilateral ties, and that the US should take concrete actions to implement its statement that it does not want “a new Cold War”.

Judy Hoarfrost, the youngest player in the nine-member US table tennis team that arrived in Beijing in 1971, said Ping-Pong Diplomacy had given her a unique perspective on how a sport can help bring people together. The sporting endeavor helped open up exchanges between the two countries, culminating in US president Richard Nixon’s trip to China in 1972.

“The USA and China have many, many ties, business ties and personal ties, so many ways that we are interrelated now that we were not in 1971,” she said.

“Ping-Pong Diplomacy was the thing that just ignited it and got it started. I do think that sports, and other cultural exchanges, play a huge part in bringing people together and nations together.”

Wang Qingyun contributed to this story.

Contact the writers at shifutian@chinadaily.com.cn