Ping-pong once again facilitates relations

The click-clack sound of ping-pong balls against paddles filtered through the friendly cheers at the John Wooden Center at the University of California in Los Angeles.

Fifty-eight members of the Chinese Table Tennis National Team, including star players and coaches such as Ma Long, Ding Ning, Xu Xin, Liu Shiwen, Fan Zhendong, Ma Lin and Chen Qi, are in Los Angeles for a 20-day visit, training with players from Team USA.

Athletes skimmed ping-pong balls across nets and moved nimbly from side to side Saturday during a daily training session.

"I think table tennis is kind of what we call our Chinese national sport, and the Chinese table tennis team is a team with a lot of honors. It's a glorious team," Zhang Ping, Chinese consul general in Los Angeles, told an audience of table tennis players, officials from the USA Table Tennis Association, UCLA representatives, Chinese students and ping-pong enthusiasts.

Table tennis is closely associated with China-US relations. It's because of the "ping-pong diplomacy" of the 1970s that people from the two countries were able to reconnect, which served as a backdrop to the establishment of US-China diplomatic relations, Zhang said.

"I think your visit this time is very important to promoting the friendship between the Chinese and American people. Also, here you are not only helping to change the American players, but also get a chance to get into the American society, and let people know that you are the friends of American people," the consul general told the Chinese national team.

The team's visit mirrors one by Chinese team in 1972.

Liu Guoliang, the president of the Chinese Table Tennis Association, said the Chinese team's visit was made possible after USA Table Tennis and the US Olympic Committee invited the team for a joint training camp with the US squad during the 2019 World Table Tennis Championships in Budapest, Hungary.

"It's already the 48th anniversary of ping-pong diplomacy, and it's a strong foundation jointly developed by several generations of Chinese and American table tennis people, so I think our friendship and the spirit of ping-pong diplomacy will continue," he said.

He said that around 30 Chinese table tennis players — 18 male players and 12 female players — and about 10 American players participated in the joint training camp.

The training not only improves the skills of the two national teams, but also helps promote the sport in the US and around the world, Liu said.

"I believe that ping-pong is not only the national sport of China, it should be the sport of the world. Since China is a major force in table tennis, it should have the responsibility to further promote it to the world," he said.

Gao Jun, a Chinese-American table tennis player who competed for the Chinese National Team and is now a coach for the US National Team, said that there is actually a large ping-pong-playing population in the US.

"But a lot of people see it as a form of exercise; only a few see it as a profession. Another reason is that you need opponents to practice ping-pong. However, in the US, people live far away from each other, and everyone has a different schedule, so it's pretty difficult to get together and play," she said.

At one table, an athlete from Team USA enjoyed a friendly game with a Chinese player. Not far from them, an American athlete pivoted around the table to return a ball sent over the net by a Chinese coach.

"This is a rare learning opportunity for the US Table Tennis Team. We not only see the skill, but we also see the spirit of the Chinese team," USA Table Tennis CEO Virginia Sung told China Daily.

"We hope the joint training camp will become an annual event, whether it's the US team visiting China, or the other way around. It will enhance the relationship and interaction between our two ping-pong associations," she added.

Ma Long, a famous Chinese ping-pong player and reigning Olympic champion, spoke to China Daily.

"I think the American campus culture is very interesting. I feel that athletes hardly get to experience campus, so I've enjoyed it very much," said Ma, who was making his first visit to the United States.

"Ping-pong facilitated the diplomatic relations between China and the US 40 years ago," he said. "I am very honored to represent the Chinese table tennis team to participate in this friendship event. I hope that China and the US will both become better in table tennis."

"Any political factor between countries should not affect sports exchange. Sports could only make people-to-people exchange even smoother," Gao said.