Past imperfect but future far from tense

Talk of skills on the soccer field and the Brazilians readily come to mind. The very mention of baseball reminds people of the Americans. There are people in other countries who are, or were, associated with one sport or the other, but perhaps none have used it on the diplomatic field as successfully as China. Beijing's ping- pong diplomacy began in 1971 and opened the door for people-to-people exchanges between China and the US.