The Daily Star – Shafik A Rahman
During the 1971 World Table Tennis Championships, a 19-year-old US player named Glenn Cowan hopped on a shuttle bus carrying the red-shirted Chinese national team. Zhuang Zedong, the team’s greatest player, stepped forward to shake Cowan’s hand, speak to him through an interpreter, and present him with a gift. This ping-pong breakthrough allowed China’s leader, Mao Zedong, to invite the US team to make an all-expenses-paid visit to his country. Subsequently, the ping-pong diplomacy resulted in opening the US-China relationship, leading the US to lift its embargo against China on June 10, 1971.Read more on The Daily Star
