Ping Pong

In the 1960s after Albania's break with the Soviet Union, the country became an unlikely satellite of communist China (Newsweek referred to the alliance as ‘Mediterranean Maoists’). Enver Hoxha called the bond between the two countries the ‘coming together of the 702 million’, China being the 700 million, Albania representing the two. In exchange for its chrome exports and introducing the 1971 resolution that got China into the United Nations, Albania received sustaining economic and military support. This short documentary focuses on the Chinese table tennis team’s friendship visit, which soon began to sour after US president Richard Nixon visited Beijing.