The 2021 World Table Tennis Championships in Houston, Texas, have put China-U.S. relations in the global spotlight, as Chinese and American paddlers paired up for the first time at a high-level tournament in the year marking the 50th anniversary of Ping Pong Diplomacy. Fifty years ago, the U.S. table tennis team was invited by their Chinese counterpart to visit China at the conclusion of the 31st World Championships in Nagoya, Japan. The U.S. players landed in Beijing on April 10, 1971, becoming the first U.S. group to visit China since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949.