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Reimagining and Repositioning China in International Politics: The Role of Sports in China’s Long 1970s

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China, Hong Kong, and the Long 1970s: Global Perspectives

Part of the book series: Cambridge Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies Series ((CIPCSS))

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Abstract

This chapter examines how the People’s Republic of China reimagined and repositioned itself in international politics from 1969 to 1980. Drawing on recently declassified documents, it argues that Beijing creatively and successfully used sports initiatives to insert itself into international politics as an important member of the global political community. As the decade began, Beijing used ping-pong diplomacy to initiate a breakthrough with the United States and other western countries. Both China’s active role in boycotting the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games and its prominent participation in the 1984 Los Angeles Games helped to win Beijing friends and influence in Washington and on the international stage. This chapter seeks to use sports as a lens through which to reevaluate the international history of China with the rest of the world.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    This chapter draws on material from my books Chinese and Americans: A Shared History (Cambridge, MA Harvard University Press, 2014); and Olympic Dreams: China and Sports, 1895–2008 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2008). It is also part of my current research project, “Idea of China,” which is under contract with Harvard University Press.

  2. 2.

    Richard Nixon, RN: Memoirs of Richard Nixon (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1978), 546.

  3. 3.

    US State Department, Confidential Telegram, Subject: Dropping Passport Restriction on Travel to Communist China, Entry 1613, Box 2188, RG 59: General Records of the Department of State, Subject-Numeric Files, 1970–1973, US National Archives II [hereafter NA], College Park, MD.

  4. 4.

    One recent study of Sino-American rapprochement from the Chinese domestic political perspective is Yafeng Xia, “China’s Elite Politics and Sino-American Rapprochement, January 1969–February 1972,” Journal of Cold War Studies 8:4 (Fall 2006), 3–28.

  5. 5.

    The best account of the four marshals’ study of Sino-American relations is Xiong Xianghui, Wo de Qingbao yu Waijiao Shengya (My Life in the Areas of Intelligence and Diplomacy) (Beijing: Zhonggong Dangshi Chubanshe, 1999), 170–201. See also Du Yi, Daxue ya Qingsong: Wenge Zhong de Chen Yi (Chen Yi during the Cultural Revolution) (Beijing: Shijie Zhishi Chubanshe, 1997), 208–212; and Zhonggong Zhongyang Wenxian Yanjiushi, ed., Zhou Enlai Nianpu, 1949–1976 (Chronological Biography of Zhou Enlai) (Beijing: Zhongyang Wenxian Chubanshe, 1997), 3: 301–302, 305.

  6. 6.

    Zhonggong Zhongyang Wenxian Yanjiushi, ed., Zhou Enlai Nianpu, 3: 341.

  7. 7.

    For some inside information on Snow’s visit, see Xiong, Wo de Qingbao yu Waijiao Shengya, 202–235.

  8. 8.

    Lin Ke, Xu Tao, and Wu Xujun, Lishi de Zhenshi: Mao Zedong Shenbian Gongzuo Renyuan de Zhengyan (The Truth of History: Testimony of the Personnel who worked with Mao Zedong) (Hong Kong: Liwen Chubanshe, 1995), 231.

  9. 9.

    Ibid., 238.

  10. 10.

    James Mann, About Face: A History of America’s Curious Relationship with China, from Nixon to Clinton (New York: Knopf, 1998), 19.

  11. 11.

    Henry Kissinger, Diplomacy (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1994), 725.

  12. 12.

    Dale Russakoff, “Team Rice, Playing Away,” The Washington Post (February 6, 2005), D1; and Richard Mandell, Sport: A Cultural History (New York: Columbia University Press, 1984), 233.

  13. 13.

    H. R. Haldeman, The Haldeman Diaries: Inside the Nixon White House (New York: Putnam’s, 1994), 110.

  14. 14.

    Zhou’s complete letter to Mao and Mao’s comment are included in Lu Guang and Zhang Xiaolan, Jinpai Cong Ling Dao Shiwu (Gold Medals from Nothing to Fifteen) (Changsha: Hunan Shaonian Ertong Chubanshe, 1985), 139–141. See also Zhonggong Zhongyang Wenxian Yanjiushi, ed., Zhou Enlai Nianpu, 3: 443–444.

  15. 15.

    Lu Guang and Zhang Xiaolan, Jinpai Cong Ling Dao Shiwu, 146.

  16. 16.

    National Sports Commission and Foreign Ministry, “Report on the Requests of Ping-Pong Teams from Colombia, Jamaica and the United States to Visit China and Request of American Journalists to Interview our Ping-Pong Team,” April 3, 1971, secret, the PRC Foreign Ministry Archives, Beijing.

  17. 17.

    For details of Mao’s role, see Zhou Yihuang, “Zhongmei Pingpong Waijiao Beihou de Mao Zedong” (Mao Zedong behind the Sino-American Ping-Pong Diplomacy), Renmin Ribao (December 19, 2003), 15.

  18. 18.

    See the official schedule for the American ping-pong team’s visit in the PRC Foreign Ministry archives.

  19. 19.

    Song Shixiong, Song Shixiong Zishu: Wo de Tiyu Shijie yu Yingping Chunqiu (The Story of Song Shixiong: My Times with the Sports World and Television) (Beijing: Zuojiu Chubanshe, 1997), 223.

  20. 20.

    “Foreign Ministry’s Note to Friendly Countries’ Embassies in China about the Visit of the American Table Tennis Team to China,” [no date], PRC Foreign Ministry Archives.

  21. 21.

    For the most recent materials from China on ping-pong diplomacy, see Xiong, Wo de Qingbao yu Waijiao Shengya, 236–259.

  22. 22.

    Confidential Telegram, from American Embassy in Canberra to Department of State, April 1971, Entry 1613, Box 2188, RG 59: General Records of the Department of State, Subject-Numeric Files, 1970–1973, NA.

  23. 23.

    Henry Kissinger, White House Years (Boston, MA: Little Brown, 1979), 709–710.

  24. 24.

    Nixon, RN, 548.

  25. 25.

    Kissinger, White House Years, 711.

  26. 26.

    Zhonggong Zhongyang Wenxian Yanjiushi, ed., Zhou Enlai Nianpu, 3: 515–516.

  27. 27.

    Graham B. Steevenhoven, oral history, Box 19, Graham B. Steevenhoven Files, National Archives on Sino-American Relations, Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

  28. 28.

    Zhonggong Zhongyang Wenxian Yanjiushi, ed., Zhou Enlai Nianpu, 3: 520.

  29. 29.

    Soviet Handbook for Party Activists, Staff Offices/Counsel Cutler, Olympic-Press, Box 104 Folder 6: Olympics-Publications and Pamphlets, Jimmy Carter Presidential Library (hereafter JCPL), Atlanta, GA.

  30. 30.

    Marshall Brement, Memorandum to Zbigniew Brzezinski, January 2, 1980, NLC-12-1-3-3-1, JCPL.

  31. 31.

    USSR: Olympic Games Preparations: An Intelligence Assessment: NLC-7–48-8-2-2, JCPL.

  32. 32.

    Stephanie McConnell, “Detente, Diplomacy, and Discord: Jimmy Carter and the 1980 Olympic Boycott” (MA thesis, Georgia State University, 1997).

  33. 33.

    Minutes of National Security Council Meeting, March 18, 1980, NLC-17-2-19-4-7, JCPL.

  34. 34.

    Memorandum to the President on January 17, 1980, Lloyd Cutler, National Security Affairs, Brzezinski Material Subject File, Olympics, Box 48, JCPL.

  35. 35.

    Henry Owen to the President, Subject IEEPA on March 20, 1980, Folder Olympics, 3/80, National Security Affairs, Brzezinski Material Subject File, Olympics, Box 49, JCPL.

  36. 36.

    Memorandum for the President on March 20, Lloyd Cutler, Subject: Use of IEEPA as an Additional Enforcement Tool to Carry out Economic and Cultural Exchange Responses to Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, White House Central File, Subject File /Recreation-Sports, Box RE-2, JCPL.

  37. 37.

    Plains File, Subject File, Box 40: Folder 4 Vance Memorandum to the President, January 12, 1980, JCPL.

  38. 38.

    Background Report by the White House Press Office, April 4, 1980, Folder Olympics, 4-10/80, National Security Affairs, Brzezinski Material Subject File, Olympics, Box 49, JCPL.

  39. 39.

    Staff Offices/Counsel Cutler, Olympic-Press, Box 104 Folder 6: Olympics-Publications and Pamphlets, JCPL.

  40. 40.

    Lloyd Cutler, Memorandum to the President on Subject of Olympics, January 16, 1980, Staff Offices/Counsel Cutler, Olympics, Box 103 Folder 3: Olympics, JCPL.

  41. 41.

    Cutler to Carter, February 18, 1980, Staff Offices/Counsel Cutler, Olympics, Box 103 Folder 3: Olympics-Memo, JCPL.

  42. 42.

    Folder Olympics, 4-10/80 Carter, National Security Affairs, Brzezinski Material Subject File, Olympics, Box 49, JCPL.

  43. 43.

    Folder Olympics, 4-10/80 Carter, National Security Affairs, Brzezinski Material Subject File, Olympics, Box 49, JCPL.

  44. 44.

    Staff Offices/Counsel Cutler, Olympic-Press, Box 104 Folder 6: Olympics-Publications and Pamphlets, JCPL.

  45. 45.

    Louis Martin, Memorandum to the President, February 11, 1980, Folder Olympics, 3/80, National Security Affairs, Brzezinski Material Subject File, Olympics, Box 49, JCPL.

  46. 46.

    Brement to Cutler, February 13, 1980, Subject: What Next on the Olympics, Folder Olympics, 3/80, National Security Affairs, Brzezinski Material Subject File, Olympics, Box 49, JCPL.

  47. 47.

    Brement to Cutler, February 25, 1980, Subject: What Next on the Olympics, Folder Olympics, 3/80, National Security Affairs, Brzezinski Material Subject File, Olympics, Box 49, JCPL.

  48. 48.

    Acting Secretary of State Warren Christopher’s Memorandum to the President, April 23, 1980, Plains File, Subject File, State Department Evening Reports, Box 40: Folder 7, JCPL.

  49. 49.

    Lloyd Cutler, Memorandum for the President, March 20, 1980, Subject: Use of IEEPA as an Additional Enforcement Tool to Carry out Economic and Cultural Exchange Responses to Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan, White House Central File, Subject File /Recreation-Sports, Box RE-2, JCPL.

  50. 50.

    President Carter’s Instruction, May 19, 1980, Staff Offices/Counsel Cutler, Olympics, Box 103 Folder 6: Olympics-Memo, JCPL.

  51. 51.

    Nelson Ledsky, Memorandum to the White House, Subject Olympic Boycott: Our Next Move? May 21, 1980, Folder Olympics, 4-10/80 Carter, National Security Affairs, Brzezinski Material Subject File, Olympics, Box 49, JCPL.

  52. 52.

    Carter, Keeping Faith: Memoirs of a President (London: Collins, 1982), 196.

  53. 53.

    Ibid., 198.

  54. 54.

    Memorandum for the Record, Subject: Deep Backgrounder for Magazine Writers, Donated Historical Material Zbigniew Brzezinski Collection, Geographic File, China, Box 9 China-President’s Meeting with Deng, JCPL.

  55. 55.

    GOP Leadership Meeting, December 10, 1975, White House Cabinet Room, Robert K. Wolthuis Files, Box 2, Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library.

  56. 56.

    Phone Conversations between Nixon and Kissinger, April 27, 1971, National Security Archives, George Washington University, Washington, DC.

  57. 57.

    Kissinger, On China (London: Allen Lane, 2011), 353.

  58. 58.

    Ibid., 364.

  59. 59.

    Carter’s Meeting with Deng January 29, 1979 5:00–5:40: Subject: Vietnam, Donated Historical Material Zbigniew Brzezinski Collection, Geographic File, China, Box 9 China-President’s Meeting with Deng, JCPL.

  60. 60.

    National Intelligence Officer for China, China’s View of the Sino-US Relationship: An Update, no date, NLC-26-71-15-3-6, JCPL.

  61. 61.

    Brzezinski, Memorandum to the President Subject: Message from Premier Hua Guofeng, February 22, 1980, White House Central File, Subject File /Recreation-Sports, Box RE-2, JCPL.

  62. 62.

    Brzezinski, Memorandum for the President, June 6, 1980, NLC-15-76-3-1-8, JCPL.

  63. 63.

    Marshall Brement, Memorandum to Brzezinski, July 17, 1980, Folder Olympics, 4-10/80, National Security Affairs, Brzezinski Material Subject File, Olympics, Box 49, JCPL.

  64. 64.

    For a recent study of the boycott and its impact on American athletes, see Tom Caraccioli and Jerry Caraccioli, Boycott: Stolen Dreams of the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games (Washington, DC: New Chapter Press, 2008).

  65. 65.

    Meeting between Secretary of State Edmund S. Muskie and Foreign Minister Andrey Gromyko, place, Hofburg, Vienna, Austria, May 16, 1980, NLC-128-5-1-16-6, JCPL.

  66. 66.

    The Chinese statement can be found in Paul Ziffren Collection, roll 3, Los Angeles Sports Research Library. See also 1403 Box 437, f. 7, Press Releases vol. 5: Chinese Sources; and 1403 Box 437, f. 12, Press Releases vol. 5, f.19: NOC’s participation, University of California at Los Angeles Archives (hereafter LA Sports Library).

  67. 67.

    Peter Ueberoth, Made in America: His Own Story (New York: William Morrow, 1985), 279–280.

  68. 68.

    “Official Report of the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad, Los Angeles, 1984,” 3, LA Sports Library.

  69. 69.

    “Final Report: Executive Summary,” 1403 box 426, f.26 Olympic Village at the UCLA, LA Sports Library.

  70. 70.

    David Holley, “China Raises Flag over New Era of Competition,” Los Angeles Times (July 18, 1984).

  71. 71.

    Ueberroth, Made in America, 351.

  72. 72.

    1403 Box 426 f. 32, Olympic Village at UCLA FINAL REPORT, Government Relations, LA Sports Library.

  73. 73.

    Xing Junji and Zu Xianhai, Bai Nian Chen Fu: Zou Jin Zhong Guo Ti Yu Jie (The Rise and Fall of Chinese Sports in the Last One Hundred Years) (Zhengzhou: Henan Wenyi Chubanshe, 2000), 2.

  74. 74.

    For further details, see Xu, Olympic Dreams, 198–206.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of History, The University of Hong Kong, Pok Fu Lam, Hong Kong

    Xu Guoqi

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Correspondence to Xu Guoqi .

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  1. City University of Macau, Taipa, Macao

    Priscilla Roberts

  2. Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

    Odd Arne Westad

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Guoqi, X. (2017). Reimagining and Repositioning China in International Politics: The Role of Sports in China’s Long 1970s. In: Roberts, P., Westad, O. (eds) China, Hong Kong, and the Long 1970s: Global Perspectives. Cambridge Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies Series. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51250-1_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51250-1_5

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