Zhuang Zedong, Triple World Table Tennis Champion and one of the key figures in the call Pimpon diplomacywhich allowed the thaw of relations between China and the United States in the 1970s, has died this Sunday in Beijing, as reported by the official Xinhua agency. He was 72 years old. Zhuang fought against cancer since 2008.
The Chinese player became popular because he gave a silk scarf with a Chinese motive to the American player Glenn Cowan, after he lost his bus and was transported in the Chinese team during the world championships held in Nagoya (Japan) in 1971. Zhuang and Cowan were photographed together, which had a great international impact in a time in which China and the US Cold
“Although the US government is hostile with China, American citizens are friends with the Chinese. I give this in friendship between the Chinese people and the American people,” he told Cowan by offering him the gift, as he told the Reuters agency in 2007.
The incident caught the attention of the Chinese leader, Mao Zedong, who quickly attended an invitation to the US team to travel to China after finishing the competition in Nagoya, in order to celebrate a visit that broke the ice between the two countries. “Zhuang Zedong not only knows table tennis well, but also knows about good diplomacy,” said the great helmsman. It was the first American delegation that China visited since the communists took power in 1949.
The trip led to the improvement of relations between the two governments. Ten months later, in February 1972, the US president, Richard Nixon, made a historic trip to China, which led to the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1979.
Zhuang raised passion in his country with his triumphs in the World Table Tennis Championships in 1961, 1963 and 1965; Thanks to its innovative way to wield the shovel, as if it were a pen, and its bold offensive setbacks.
The Chinese athlete became a favorite of Mao's wife, Jiang Qing, a member of the call Band of the Fourwhich dominated the cultural scene during the cultural revolution (1966-1976). Jiang placed Zhuang in different political positions in the Ministry of Sports.
After the death of Mao, in 1976, and the consequent purge of the band of the four for his excesses, Zhuang was investigated and arrested four years. After being released, he spent years training the provincial team of Shanxi. In 1985, he returned to Beijing, where he continued to train young players. Zhuang, who married twice-the second, with a Japanese-had a daughter of his first marriage. He was born in Yangzhou, in the coastal province of Jiangsu.
