Ping Pong diplomacy 2: Table tennis breaks through China's COVID border closure

In 1971, an invitation was extended to the US table tennis team to visit what had been a reclusive, inward-looking China. It is table tennis that has been welcomed back into China as the rest of the world is kept out by borders that are closed due to the country's strict COVID-zero policy. With the exception of table tennis and the Beijing Winter Olympic Games in February, all other international events - sporting and otherwise - have been postponed or cancelled. "I believe mainly it's due to the history of table tennis in this country," Steve Dainton, the Australian chief executive of the International Table Tennis Federation, told The Ticket. "We have a rich history, it's known as the national ball - the little white ping pong ball that has captured the nation for over 50 years."It was the first sport to have a world championship in 1961 in Beijing, we were one of the first international federations to recognise the People's Republic of China. The world championships had a cumulative audience of over one billion while the women's final had one of the year's biggest sporting audiences - more than 53 million in China alone. "It just shows you the superpower strength that they have in terms of table tennis sports stars.