Tribute to 50 years of ping-pong diplomacy, China and the United States both won
Xinhua News Agency, Houston, November 24th. On the 23rd local time, two pieces of good news closely related to table tennis came from Houston in the United States-
On the same day, in the first day of the 2021 World Table Tennis Championships in Houston, two pairs of Sino-US Inter-Association Mixed Doubles swept their opponents to advance.
That night, the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, the United States Table Tennis Association and the Chinese Table Tennis Association jointly organized the "Continuing the Friendship and Creating a Bright Future-the 50th Anniversary of China-U.S. "Ping Pong Diplomacy"" in Houston.
The winning Sino-US mixed doubles are the national table tennis men's team Lin Gaoyuan partnered with American women's No. 1 Zhang An, national table tennis women's team Wang Manyu and American player Kanak.
On the eve of the opening of the World Table Tennis Championships, the Sino-US multinational mixed doubles team conducted the first paired joint training.
As Liu Guoliang, Chairman of the Chinese Table Tennis Association said that evening, the performance itself is not the most important.
The paired participation of China and the United States in the World Table Tennis Championships is a continuation of the "ping pong diplomacy" between China and the United States.
As a carrier, the little table tennis unleashes the friendship between the Chinese and American peoples.
"Ping Pong Diplomacy", former US table tennis player Judy Hofrost said in an exclusive interview with a reporter from Xinhua News Agency that it is a wonderful gesture for Chinese and American players to match internationally and hold joint training.
"This means that people really care about the precious legacy of'ping pong diplomacy' and pass it on to current and future players."
"I am very fortunate and very happy to have such an opportunity," Wang Manyu said. "I hope that through every game that goes all out, our story in Houston will become history."