China opened its doors to the Western World and the U.S. with
the diplomacy of ping pong
A sport in which they excelled at a time when in relations
between China and the U.S. diplomacy seemed not to belong
A chance meeting between U.S. Table Tennis player Glenn Cowan and Chinese player Zhuang Zedong
at the World Table Tennis Championships in Japan in 1971 took place
On the bus the
two exchanged gifts as athletes the failure to do so would bring both in the
sporting world disgrace
Which was quickly
followed by an invitation for the U.S. Table Team to visit China between the
two teams matches play
An example of
the power of sports to defuse the desire of warring parties to try to each
other slay
Leading to
President Nixon’s historic visit to China in 1972
Opening the door to normalizing relations between the 2
Sadly those
early seeds of defusing hostilities between the 2 has not born fruit
As China has threatened
Taiwan, engaged in an arms race and trade practices that were unfair and
continued to our IP loot
While ping
pong diplomacy did not survive for long
As a tool to
extend life expectancy it still belongs
Ivan Pedley, a
92 year old retired toolmaker, plays ping pong twice a week
That he
believes is the secret to a long life being able to seek
© 2/1/2025 Michael
P. Ridley aka The Alaskanpoet
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