A summer of sport: Diplomatic ping-pong

Every Saturday this summer, a comic strip about sports. Today, “Ping-pong diplomacy”, by Alcante and Alain Mounier, when a hippie brings China and the United States closer together.

Ping-pong diplomacy: the expression has become common in geopolitics, when it comes to explaining how sporting events can help bring countries closer together.

In the early 2000s, India and Pakistan, particularly on bad terms, only exchanged views during international cricket competitions, which both nations are fond of. In 2018, at the Winter Olympics, the two Koreas, who are known to hate each other, fielded a unified ice hockey team.

It all began in the early 1970s, when the United States was wondering how to begin the thaw with Mao’s China. The two giants had not had any relations for 20 years. On both sides, public opinion despised each other. For that to change, it would take a stroke of luck and two champions with completely opposite profiles.

The American’s name is Glenn Cowan; the Chinese’s, Zhuang Zedong. They are taking part in a world table tennis championship in Japan. After a training session, Glenn, with long hair, flared jeans and a good Californian hippie look, gets on the Chinese bus without realizing it and all smiles. Only Zhuang Zedong, stiff in his red tracksuit, agrees to be friends.

What should have been a one-night stand came at just the right time for Nixon and Mao. The budding friendship between the two athletes gave rise to a media buzz encouraged by the leaders. Bows and handshakes, invitations from the American team to China, then from the Chinese to the United States. Until President Nixon came to Beijing in February 1972.

“In the end, China entered the UN. It was to the detriment of Taiwan, which was ejected. But I remained focused on this story of friendship between peoples against a backdrop of flower power and ping-pong.”

The screenwriter Alcante

to franceinfo

Ping-Pong Diplomacyby Alcante and Alain Mounier, published by Delcourt