The China-U.S. Youth Table Tennis Friendship Match was held Thursday at Ningxia Gymnasium in northwest China, carrying forward the tradition of Ping-Pong Diplomacy, the 1971 exchange when U.S. table tennis players visited China and helped break the ice in bilateral relations.
The U.S. collegiate team from the Pacific Northwest, led by Judy Hoarfrost, who at 15 joined the historic 1971 delegation, paired with Ningxia University athletes to form "Team Peace" and "Team Friendship" for a friendly competition.
Hoarfrost struck the opening ball, recalling her role in the original Ping‑Pong Diplomacy visit more than five decades ago.
"It's really warm-heartening for me to be here today with our young athletes from my region of the United States. For most of them, it's their first time in China. They are learning all about Ping-Pong Diplomacy while they're here, but they're also creating Ping-Pong Diplomacy," said Hoarfrost, who is also the president and CEO of Paddle Palace Club.
For many of the American students visiting China for the first time, table tennis became their bridge to Chinese peers and a direct way to connect across cultures.
"I feel pretty good. It's been fun to play a lot of different players, so it has been a good experience. I think sports are a great way, just for younger people especially, to see one another's culture. I mean, we all have shared love of the sport, so it helps people connect with each other," said Nathanael Jaden Wilkinson, a student and athlete of Oregon State University.
"I'm really happy to have the chance to exchange and learn with the American athletes. I think sports are a great medium to bring the people of China and the United States closer - including the friendly exchanges between our younger generations. Through table tennis, through the process of learning from each other on the court, a wonderful friendship can be formed," said Lu Chang, a student and athlete of Ningxia University.
The year 2026 marks the 55th anniversary of Ping‑Pong Diplomacy, the landmark 1971 visit by a U.S. table tennis delegation that broke the ice in China‑U.S. relations and paved the way for exchanges that continue today.
Youth table tennis match carries forward Ping‑Pong Diplomacy tradition in northwest China
Youth table tennis match carries forward Ping‑Pong Diplomacy tradition in northwest China
Youth table tennis match carries forward Ping‑Pong Diplomacy tradition in northwest China
Honor's humanoid robot, Lightning, which swept the 2026 Beijing E-Town Humanoid Robot Half-Marathon on Sunday, is a natural extension of years of accumulation in consumer electronics technology, said its developers.
A leading smart device provider in China, Honor independently developed the model, which dominated the podium at the event as it was used by all three teams whose autonomous navigating robots ran the fastest times.
At the Honor factory in Pingshan District in Shenzhen City, south China's Guangdong Province, where robotics engineers developed Lightning. They said the robot's body design incorporates a simulation system that, through artificial intelligence algorithms, can iterate nearly 30,000 design schemes of varying sizes over three months. Complete and mature systems are also in place for battery, communication, and reliability verification.
"We built a simulation lab from scratch. For the robots, we digitize the entire design and put it into a computer. We have our own material library, which can meet the force, thermal, and chemical property demands for each component, under different environments and speeds. We've accumulated about 1000 kinds of materials. For example, if there's a risk with the robot's neck, we just need to change the material code from 001 to 002. Now, through our simulations, we only need one day to perform parallel calculations on 10 different designs, before creating a mold and verifying it in the lab," said Li Zheng, a senior engineer at Honor.
An autonomous robot capable of completing a half-marathon involves a complete industry chain, with core components including high-precision sensors, LiDAR, motors, operating systems, and control algorithms. The development of robotic marathoners have driven an increasing number of component enterprises to get involved.
Manifold, a tech firm established by newly-graduated PhDs, has developed a 3D spatial memory module, which can model an environment in real time and transform it into images that robots can understand. They said several robots running the half-marathon this year adopted their solution.
"Our device can operate within a one-kilometer tunnel with an error margin of only tens of centimeters. For robots, especially in the absence of GPS, this allows them to accurately determine their location. The underlying technology is a multi-sensor fusion technology that we developed in-house," said Qin Youming, CEO and founder of Manifold.
The Beijing Humanoid Robotics Innovation Center set up a training camp for the marathon event. Many university students came a month ahead of the event to develop and debug their technologies and algorithms based on open-source robot bodies, databases, and training platforms.
"These high-quality databases and highly open-source control algorithms are actually very helpful to us. We no longer need to build the house from the ground up, but can skip the most basic part," said Sun Jingyu, a student from Shandong University.
"Through this racing event, I believe we can make our robots more reliable and stable, while also supporting high-dynamic, high-load movements. This is crucial for robots' future application in both industrial, commercial and domestic scenarios," said Guo Yijie, head of the innovative humanoid department and the Marathon project of Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center.
Engineers share development story behind Beijing humanoid half-marathon champion model
