China and the US court friendship

BEIJING - Sixteen young Chinese high school students and that same number of foreigners will battle it out this weekend in the first 16x16 Basketball Tournament at the Western Academy of Beijing.

The event is the brainchild of United States charity organization Americans for Promotion of Study Abroad (APSA) and falls under the umbrella of President Barack Obama's 100,000 Strong Initiative, which aims to get more than 100,000 of his countrymen involved with China before the end of his first term in office in November of next year.

The central theme of the event is "friendship through basketball", and the 32 players will be divided into eight teams of four, which will each feature two Chinese and two foreign players.