Nations brought closer by universal language of sports

Sports exchanges have been boosting Sino-US cultural ties with a growing number of events, both elite and grassroots, in recent years, officials and experts said.

From the groundbreaking ping-pong diplomacy of the 1970s to the NBA Global Games China held last year, sports exchanges between China and the United States have enhanced mutual ties on a field that features not political conversations but the universal language of sport.

"Sport, as a unique bridge and bond, has brought the peoples of the two countries closer for more than 40 years," said Yang Shu'an, vice-minister of sport, during the first China-US Sport Seminar at Beijing Sport University on Wednesday.