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If you're a Chinese leader and you want to make any kind of diplomatic progress, it helps if you're good at sport (if you're not so good at sport, you can always be enthusiastic and hope that nobody notices how bad you are.) Sport has been one of China's favourite diplomatic icebreakers since 1971 - when ping-pong diplomacy brought a US table tennis team into the country, paving the way for US President Richard Nixon's visit a year later.

Right now, China's President Hu Jintao has gone to Japan for a five-day visit (an important trip - China and Japan are the two major powers in this part of the world, they're important trading partners, but they're still trying to get over the bitterness caused by Japan's occupation of parts of China from 1931-45.) China's president will do the usual thing - talks, banquets, speeches. But, built into his trip is a game of ping-pong against the Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda. Mr Fukuda might want to start practising. I've seen pictures of Mr Hu playing on Chinese TV and he looks pretty good (tip for the Japanese prime minister - Hu Jintao likes to play a quick-reflex game close to the table. So a few lobs might work.) But this is ping pong diplomacy not the world championships - the rule is that you can't thrash your opponent (presumably in case he goes off in a huff and breaks off relations with your country.) So the two leaders will play doubles. Hu Jintao will pair up with the Japanese player Ai Fukuhara, and Yasuo Fukuda will play with the Chinese Olympic champion Wang Nan. No doubt everyone will hope for a draw.

Ping-pong diplomacy has now become a kind of franchise which includes other sports as well. Last year China's premier Wen Jiabao went to Japan and played some baseball - although he confessed that it had been 50 years since he'd last picked up a glove or bat (you can .) When Yasuo Fukuda came to China last December, he and Mr Wen played a game of catch inside a heavily guarded state guest house (.)

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