Rapprochement with the United States } 295
to the United States personally hand-carried from Islamabad to Washington.
In the letter, Zhou acknowledged receipt of earlier messages from Nixon via
intermediaries, and noted Nixon’s statement to President Yahya of Pakistan
that the United States would not join in a condominium with the Soviet
Union against China. Zhou also agreed to the United States sending either
a high-level emissary or President Nixon himself to Beijing for talks. The
letter mentioned Taiwan, but in a way that Kissinger described as the mild-
est formulation on Taiwan that the United States had received from China
in twenty years.^17 Zhou sent a second and nearly identical letter to Kissinger
via the Romanian channel, but that missive arrived nearly after a month
after the Pakistani one. Kissinger replied to Zhou in early January 1971 with
a letter delivered via the Romanian channel, and indicating a willingness to
send a high-level representative to Beijing for discussions. Then for a period
of three months there was no further communication between Beijing and
Washington. China’s next move came in a form that came to symbolize the
dramatic realignment underway: ping-pong diplomacy.
An international ping-pong tournament was taking place in Nagoya,
Japan, in April 1971, and a team from China was participating—its first such
participation in an international tournament—as was a team from the United
States. One player on the US team, Glenn Cowan, happened one morning
to miss his bus to the tournament building and was invited to board the
Chinese bus to that destination by a Chinese player.^18 At the back of the bus,
champion Chinese player Zhuang Zedong noted the American player, with
shoulder-length hair in the style of that era, and debated in his mind for ten
minutes of the fifteen-minute ride to their destination whether he should greet
the American. Eventually, Zhuang remembered the photo of Mao together
with Edgar Snow atop Tiananmen during the previous National Day, under-
stood that that photo in effect authorized friendly contacts with Americans,
and approached Cowan to give him a gift of a silk landscape of Huangshan
Mountain. Delighted, Cowan fumbled for a gift to give in return but, on the
spot, came up only with a hair comb, which he gave to Zhuang. When the
bus arrived at its destination many journalists were waiting and, of course,
focused on the strange sight of a long-haired young American together with
Chinese athletes. One journalist asked Cowan if he would like to visit China,
and Cowan replied “Of course.” The next day, Japanese newspapers carried
many photos of Cowan together with Zhuang and other Chinese athletes.
The foreign affairs person accompanying and responsible for the Chinese
table tennis team immediately reported the episode to the MFA and Zhou
Enlai. The possibility of inviting the US team to visit China for a few exhibi-
tion games after the Japan tournament thus presented itself. The MFA and
Zhou Enlai, who immediately conveyed the information to Mao, recom-
mended caution: the US team should not be invited. The decision for an invi-
tation was Mao’s alone. For two days, Mao considered the MFA and Zhou’s