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."

Photos: WTT

China's Lin Gaoyuan got the ball rolling on Monday night as he warmed up with his American partner Lily Zhang during a joint training session for a much-anticipated mixed doubles event on Tuesday. Lin's compatriot, Wang Manyu, was paired with U.S. talent Kanak Jha.

The Chinese Table Tennis Association and the U.S. Table Tennis Association jointly submitted the request to allow China-U.S. pairs to compete to the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF), whose Executive Committee approved the request on Sunday, according to a statement published on the ITTF's official website.

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.

The Chinese team paid a return visit the following year, thus breaking the ice after two decades of China-U.S. estrangement, and eventually leading to the normalization of bilateral ties.