From ping-pong diplomacy to basket-brawl: What the Chinese-Georgetown fight reveals

Forty years ago, when China was still closed off to most of the world, Chairman Mao Zedong invited a group of American table-tennis players to participate in a week of friendly exhibition matches around the country. Insular and impoverished, the People’s Republic was just emerging from the most chaotic years of the Cultural Revolution. Although he was largely responsible for creating this predicament, Mao saw that sports could help gently pull China out of its isolation.

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