# Pickleball diplomacy: US students play China’s new bridge sport 2026-08-13T09:44:59+00:00 | World & Diplomacy | Indian Opinion Desk Corroboration: 1 independent outlet Twenty-four American students from Iowa arrived in China this week for an eight-day cultural and sporting exchange centred on pickleball, a hybrid of tennis, badminton and table tennis. Organised by China’s Ministry of Education, the trip will take the delegation from Beijing to Qingdao and Hebi, a city in Henan Province that calls itself China’s “Pickleball City.” Hebi will host the national championships for the third straight year in September. The visit echoes the 1971 Ping-Pong Diplomacy that reopened US-China people-to-people contact. But the pickleball initiative is part of a larger effort: in 2023, China launched a programme to bring 50,000 young Americans over five years. Times Now reports that China’s Foreign Ministry claims the target has already been met, with two and a half years still remaining. ## Coverage - timesnownews.com Tags: Iowa, pickleball, Ping-Pong diplomacy, student exchange, US-China relations Canonical: https://indianopinion.org/pickleball-diplomacy-us-students-play-chinas-new-bridge-sport/ License: Summary and commentary (c) Indian Opinion, reusable with attribution. Facts belong to the linked sources. Cite: https://indianopinion.org/pickleball-diplomacy-us-students-play-chinas-new-bridge-sport/#story-in-brief Review state: restored archive article, accurate at time of publication, not offered to search indexes.