Table Tennis: A Game of War

The only thing most Americans know about Ping-Pong is that it is played with wooden paddles and a light little ball that is forever getting lost under the TV set. In Red China, where there are 3,000,000 registered players, it is the national sport. Every commune, factory and office has its Ping-Pong league: in one Shanghai plant alone, there are 140 teams. So it was no surprise when last week's world table-tennis championships got under way in Ljubljana, Yugoslavia, that the Red Chinese were head and shoulders above the players from 46 other nations. "With them," said a...

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