Claudia Anyaso worked at the State Department’s Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs and was also interviewed by Kennedy, in September 2009. William Cunningham was the Political Officer at Embassy Tokyo and was interviewed by Charles Stuart Kennedy beginning March 1997. Herbert Levin served as Japan Desk Officer at the State Department and was interviewed by Mike Springmann in March 1994. Michael Newlin was Permanent Representative at the US Mission to the UN and was interviewed by Thomas Dunnigan starting October 1997. Richard Soloman at the time served on the National Security Council he was interviewed by Charles Stuart Kennedy beginning in September 1996. (Forrest Gump, as played by Tom Hanks, was a member of the team, as seen in this video clip.) This trip set the groundwork for Kissinger’s secret trip to China in July 1971, which in turn paved the way for Nixon’s visit the following February. During their week-long stay in China, the team played exhibitions, toured the Great Wall and the Summer Palace, and took in a ballet. On April 10, the American ping-pong team became the first Americans to enter the PRC in 25 years. assured them that it approved of people-to-people contacts. policy, and that they could assure the Chinese of a reciprocal invitation. Meanwhile, Nixon and National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger were working secret channels with China.Īfter receiving the invitation, the American team had to make sure that accepting would not be against U.S. Finally, a chance meeting between American player Glenn Cowan and Chinese Zhuang Zedong sparked a brief instance of cultural exchange. Second, an American ping-player, Leah Neuberger was travelling with the Canadian team, and the Chinese government extended her visa approval to the entire American team.

Roy Evans of Wales, visited China soon before the World Championships that year and recommended that China use the sport to connect with the outside world.

First, the President of the International Table Tennis Federation, H.

Sports had long been a diplomatic tool for the Chinese under the slogan “Friendship First, Competition Second.” Thus, on April 6, 1971, the Chinese national ping-pong team invited the American team to visit China while the two teams were at the World Championships in Nagoya, Japan.Ī confluence of events led to the invitation. These diplomatic objectives led to President Richard Nixon’s historic opening to China.īut before his February 1972 to Peking there was ping pong diplomacy. However, by 1971 China was growing desperate for foreign investment while the United States sought an end to the Vietnam War as well as ways to increase its leverage vis-a-vis the Soviet Union. The 1966 Cultural Revolution only served to strengthen the Communist Party’s commitment to isolation from the West. Following the Chinese Civil War and the establishment of the People’s Republic of China on the mainland, a “ Bamboo Curtain,” the Chinese equivalent of Russia’s “Iron Curtain,” was established, closing off China from the non-Communist world.

Cause and effect of nixon visits china