50th Anniversary of Ping-Pong Diplomacy - from Ashfield to Beijing 2nd Version

21 April 2021 marks the 50-year anniversary of the 1971 Australian Ping Pong Diplomacy Tour to China, where an Australian table tennis delegation with players of Anne Middleton, Paul Pinkewich, Steve Knapp; coach of Noel Shorter; and Team Manager and the President of Australian Table Tennis Association (the former of Table Tennis Australia until 1994) of Dr John Jackson travelled to China for competitions, training and cultural exchange.

The event paved the way to a visit to Beijing by Gough Whitlam as the Australian opposition leader on 3 July 1971.The event has been marked as a key turning point in relations of countries with different backgrounds, and the policy approach has since been successfully carried out elsewhere.

Steve Knapp (Left), Noel Shorter (Middle), and Paul Pinkewich (Right) reunited recently in Sydney to celebrate their historic tour to China in 1971.

In 1964, Paul Pinkewich, the student of Ashfield Boys’ High School and the halfhack of NSW Schoolboys Rugby League, started to play table tennis with the professional training of Noel Shorter. To be the best, Paul ran 5 miles (8kms) every second day and he sometime had to run as early as 1am in the midnight due to his busy work. Paul practised for 1 and half hours after school everyday during weekdays and practised 10 hours each day on weekends at Summer Hill table tennis training centre.

Paul’s hard training with Noel’s professional training made Paul to be one of the best junior players in Australia shortly. In 1967, Paul was selected to represent Australia to Stockholm  World Championships as one of the youngest Australian juniors with the senior team.

Paul Pinkewich (right-handed defensive player) and Steve Knapp (left-handed attacker from Melbourne) guided Australia through its golden era of her table tennis in the 1970s. They financed their own trips over seas for coaching in Japan and Sweden and gradually raised their standard to world class.

Paul and Steve played together for decades as part of the Australian team, which achieved NO 12 in the world in 1979, the highest ranking ever for an Australian team. Both Paul and Steve are in the Table Tennis Australia Hall of Fame for their contributions and achievements in table tennis.

On 21 April 1971, after they played the Table Tennis World Championships in Nagoya, Japan, Paul, Steve and Anne entered China with Noel & John via Hong Kong as the precursors to official diplomatic relations being established between Australia and China.

Paul Pinkewich (left), Steve Knapp (Middle) and Anne Middleton (Right) at CANTON (now Guangzhou) Railway Station, China on 21 April 1971.

Paul and his team played 3 friendly matches in April 1971 in China: one in CANTON (now Guangzhou) in front of 8000 people, 2nd in Shanghai with 7500 spectators and the last in PEKING (now Beijing) Capital Stadium with 18000 spectators. “It is a great experience.“ Paul Pinkewich said.

The Chinese Premier, Zhou Enlai met Australian table tennis delegation at Beijing Great Hall of the People on 1 May 1971. Later Australian delegation was invited to attend the May Day Celebrations in Beijing Tienamen Square.

Zhou Enlai (left 6th) had the honour of meeting with Paul Pinkewich (left 1st), Steve Knapp (left 2nd), Anne Middleton (left 3rd), Noel Shorter (left 5th), and John Jackson (left 7th) on 1 May 1971 in Beijing.

“It was important for us to be seen as good ambassadors. But we were just normal people interested in playing sports. The fact that sport can promote peace and good will, that’s the way the world should approach everything,” said Paul Pinkewich.

“We are absolutely proud of what we did. We all contributed greatly, and I would like to think we did a good job in terms of representing Australia and Australians,” said Noel Shorter.

Steve Knapp, Noel Shorter, and Paul Pinkewich hope that 50th Anniversary of Ping-Pong Diplomacy, telling the story of their historical trip to China, can help the younger generation to understand that sport can break down barriers and unite people.

Michael Li thanks for the discussion, communication, advice and support of Paul Pinkewick for this article.