Mutual visits between U.S., Chinese table tennis teams add new impetus to people-to-people exchanges: FM spokesperson

(ECNS) -- Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning introduced on Tuesday that very recently, the Peking University table tennis team visited the U.S. at its invitation and took part in the USATT Table Tennis Open Championships and an event held by the Chinese Embassy and Consulates in the U.S. to mark the historic ping-pong diplomacy.

Mao said the team played table tennis and interacted with U.S. friends who were personally involved in ping-pong diplomacy, young students and the local people. The table tennis delegation from the University of Virginia visited China upon invitation and attended the China-U.S. Youth Ping-Pong Exchange at Tsinghua University.

“The mutual visits added a new chapter to the stories of China-U.S. friendship that began with ping-pong diplomacy and new impetus to people-to-people exchanges,” she remarked.

The hope of the China-U.S. relationship lies in the people, its foundation is in our societies, its future depends on the youth, and its vitality comes from exchanges at subnational levels, she said.

She added that 53 years ago, young table tennis players from China and the U.S. kick-started the progress toward normalizing China-U.S. relations in Beijing, hence the much told stories of “the little ball being able to move the big ball.”

“The more people-to-people exchanges our two countries have, the greater the public support, prospects and dynamism for China-U.S. relations will be. China stands ready to work with the US to deliver the important common understanding reached at the San Francisco summit meeting on promoting people-to-people exchanges, carry forward the spirit of ping-pong diplomacy and write new chapters of friendship between our two peoples,” Mao said.