Going to China

 Ping Pong Diplomacy:
A Rally For U.S.- China Relations

Going to China

“I’m the premier, so I can’t go everywhere. You’re Ping-Pong players—you can go anywhere in the world.” 
~Zhou 周恩来, 1971

   American team arriving in China

   On April of 1971, players representing the U.S. Table Tennis team took a historic trip to China. Overnight, these players became diplomats. 

“Everything was different. We are an eye-catching group of people. All the Chinese are wearing uniformly, either gray or blue trousers and collar-standing jackets. But we are all typical American dressing style. Jeans, windbreakers, and T-shirts. The streets are full of two-wheeled and three-wheeled bikes and hand carts. We also went to Tsinghua University, where we went to see the advanced technology. The most exciting thing is that we climbed the Great Wall. It was really majestic, totally different from the buildings we see in the United States.”​​​​​

~Unspecified American ping pong player, CCTV《国家记忆, 中美1972》Ep. 2, Ping Pong Diplomacy

  Zhou and Sweeris. Source: Connie Sweeris

As part of their welcome, Zhou Enlai, Premier of the PRC, greeted each player. 

“On the afternoon of April 13th, 18000 spectators came to the Captial Gymnasium to welcome the US ping pong delegation. The athletes of the Sino-US teams exchanged pennants and souvenirs. After the welcome ceremony, the Chinese and American athletes engaged in a friendly competition...Throughout the course of the games, the audience constantly applauded for the outstanding skills of the athletes of both countries.” ​​​​​​​

~ CCTV, 1971

American team in China. Source: HistoryToday 

The Chinese team was among the best in the world, and the Americans noticed that the Chinese seemed to “go easy” on them out of courtesy. 

“It is always a pleasure to greet friends from afar. The exchanges between Chinese and American people used to be very frequent in the past, but there was a long period of interruption later. Your visit this time opened the gate of friendly exchanges between the two peoples of China and the US! I believe friendly exchanges between the peoples of China and the US will gain the approval and support from most of the people!”

​​​​​​​~Zhou ​​​​​​​周恩来 in a speech to the American ping pong players, 1971

“The People’s Republic of China and the government of the United States have had great differences. We will have great differences in the future. But what we must do is to find a way to see that we can have differences without being enemies with each other.”

~ President Nixon during a press conference announcing the lifting of the China trade embargo