Ping pong diplomacy

Meeting Mao with Nixon in Beijing 1972

As ping-pong diplomacy referred to the political approach of the People's Republic of China and the United States in the 1970s with the help of table tennis .

In the 1950s and 1960s the US and China tried to improve relations with "normal" diplomatic means; the so-called Warsaw Talks did not bring the hoped-for results.

The table tennis players came here to help. During the 1971 World Cup in Nagoya ( Japan ), the players made friends Glenn Cowan (USA) and Zhuang Zedong (China). As a result, Sung Chung, the general secretary of the Chinese Table Tennis Association, invited the American players to Beijing on April 7, 1971 .

This visit was followed by further meetings of high-ranking politicians ( Henry Kissinger in July 1971 and Richard Nixon in February 1972 ), which eased tensions and improved relations. These events are now known as ping pong diplomacy .

The invitation of the Americans to Beijing is shown in the film Forrest Gump , among other things , when Tom Hanks travels to Beijing as one of these table tennis players and then meets Nixon.

background

The United States of America viewed the People's Republic of China as an aggressor nation and enforced an economic containment policy including an embargo on the PRC after it entered the Korean War in 1950. After about 20 years of diplomatic and economic standstill between the two nations, both saw it as an advantage to open up to one another. "The 31st Table Tennis World Championship, held in Nagoya Japan, offered an opportunity for both China and the USA."

Nixon's visit

Two months after Richard Nixon's visit to China, Zhuang Zedong traveled to the USA in April 1972 as head of the Chinese table tennis delegation. On his itinerary, he also visited Canada, Mexico, and Peru. However, China's attempts to reach the countries through "ping pong diplomacy" have not always been successful. The All Indonesia Table Tennis Association declined an invitation from China in October 1971 on the grounds that the invitation would improve China's reputation. Since neither Soviet athletes nor journalists appeared in China after the American players' appearance, the impression arose that this represented a disdain for both countries towards the USSR.

philately

Perforated postage stamps for "ping-pong diplomacy" on metal-coated paper were issued by the Republic of Guinea on December 13, 1971 ( Michel catalog no. 597-605). There was also a first day cancellation with the text "Ping-Pong" by Conakry .

For the 35th anniversary of the "ping-pong diplomacy" from April 1st to 3rd, 2006, a matching black and red special stamp was used in Changzhou (People's Republic of China). The flags of the USA and the People's Republic of China as well as two table tennis bats are shown on the special stamp.

literature

Friedhard Teuffel: The end of the ice age. In: Table tennis magazine . No. 5, 2011, pp. 40-41.
Friedhard Teuffel: Ping-pong diplomacy. In: Der Tagesspiegel. March 27, 2011.

Individual evidence

^ DTS magazine . No. 8, 1971, p. 6.
↑ Yan Jiaqi, Gao Gao: Turbulent Decade: A History of the Cultural Revolution. University of Hawaii Press, 1996, ISBN 0-8248-1695-1 .
↑ Mohammad Younus Fahim: Diplomacy, The Only Legitimate Way of Conducting International Relations. Dissertation. London 2010, ISBN 978-1-4466-9706-1 .

[1] DTS magazine . No. 8, 1971, p. 6.

[hinterg-2] Yan Jiaqi, Gao Gao: Turbulent Decade: A History of the Cultural Revolution. University of Hawaii Press, 1996, ISBN 0-8248-1695-1 .

[nixbesuch-3] Mohammad Younus Fahim: Diplomacy, The Only Legitimate Way of Conducting International Relations. Dissertation. London 2010, ISBN 978-1-4466-9706-1 .