|
NAGOYA, Japan, April 4-- Chinese and Japanese players who witnessed the ping-pong diplomacy decades ago reunited at the Aikodai Meiden High School in Nagoya on Tuesday to play a friendly game and celebrate the lasting ping-pong friendship between the peoples of the two countries. Forty-seven years ago, exchanges between ping-pong players at the 31st World Table Tennis Championships in Nagoya, Japan, paved the way for China and the United States to finally normalize bilateral diplomatic relations. Japanese friendly personnel such as Koji Goto, the late chairman of Japan Table Tennis Association and former president of Table Tennis Federation of Asia, played a key role in helping Chinese players to enter the the 1971 championships. Yasuyuki Goto, grandson of Koji Goto and head of Nagoya Electrical Educational Foundation, told at the welcoming ceremony the story how his grandfather, together with other Japanese friends, helped pull strings and made contribution to the normalization of ties between China and the United States as well as between China and Japan. As this year marks the 40th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Peace and Friendship between China and Japan, it is hoped that commemoration of the ping-pong diplomacy could deepen friendship between the peoples of the two countries, Goto said. Toshiko Takeuchi, who represented Japan at the championships 47 years ago, could still remember vividly her then impression of the Chinese athletes. | 
