the Chinese, he was hilarious—and free. Inviting the laughably bad American Ping-Pong team to China turned out to be the ideal way for Mao Zedong to sell his people on a resumption of ties with the US. On occasion, Chinese players deliberately lost to the Americans, playing the role of munificent hosts. This display of both Chinese dominance over and magnanimity toward the Beautiful Country clearly demonstrated China’s superiority. The unwitting Americans were put in the role of supplicants; they had begged to be allowed to come to China, and China had heard their pleas. Mao would frame the
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